[Xmca-l] Re: A contribution of value, I hope

[mike cole]

Anthony and David-

I am a great admirer of Burke's..... and of the parlor metaphor.  But I did
not take away all the features you did. Must be I have a different
terministic screen. (see below).  I am not sure why, maybe from memories of
parties that go late into the night where there is an all night political
argument about the possibility of social democracy, or whether the US blew
a chance for real detente with Russia in 1991, or whether
the, if Lenin had lived, the USSR would have taken another path (a hot,
never ceasing topic when we lived in the dorms at MoscowU,
or, maybe how to use the current crisis to make structural change in the
US. Anyway, for me it works as a metaphor for the discourses of
modern social life.

About terministic determinism.  I went of google to check the term and
found the brief summary below of the idea fpn wikipedia.  It struck me as a
very
similar to lsv's idea of the semantic structure of consciousness. And
relevant to many of our discussions.
mike

>From Wikipedia
Another key concept for Burke is the Terministic screen
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terministic_screens__;!!Mih3wA!W7tmJHlMLhZZaJSeTL-4zyxZoi5rH3fCW766WTglTGqxjpIszXCo9FZaKl1vI7C8Bs8vvQ$ >—a *set* of symbols that
becomes a kind of *screen* or grid of intelligibility through which the
world makes sense to us. Here Burke offers rhetorical theorists and critics
a way of understanding the relationship between language and ideology.
Language, Burke thought, doesn't simply "reflect" reality; it also helps
*select* reality as well as *deflect* reality. In *Language as Symbolic
Action* (1966), he writes, "Even if any given terminology is a *reflection* of
reality, by its very nature as a terminology it must be a *selection* of
reality; and to this extent must function also as a *deflection* of reality.
[22] <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Burke*cite_note-22__;Iw!!Mih3wA!W7tmJHlMLhZZaJSeTL-4zyxZoi5rH3fCW766WTglTGqxjpIszXCo9FZaKl1vI7AET9sapw$ > Burke
describes terministic screens as reflections of reality—we see these
symbols as things that direct our attention to the topic at hand. For
example, photos of the same object with different filters each direct the
viewer's attention differently, much like how different subjects in
academia grab the attention differently. Burke states, "We must use
terministic screens, since we can't say anything without the use of terms;
whatever terms we use, they necessarily constitute a corresponding kind of
screen; and any such screen necessarily directs the attention to one field
rather than another." Burke drew not only from the works of Shakespeare and
Sophocles, but from films and radio that were important to pop culture,
because they were teeming with "symbolic and rhetorical ingredients." We as
a people can be cued to accept the screen put in front of us, and mass
culture such as TV and websites can be to blame for this. Media today has
altered terministic screens, or as Richard Toye
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Toye__;!!Mih3wA!W7tmJHlMLhZZaJSeTL-4zyxZoi5rH3fCW766WTglTGqxjpIszXCo9FZaKl1vI7A6dMJSkA$ > wrote in his book *Rhetoric: A
Very Short Introduction*, the "linguistic filters which cause us to see
situations in particular fashions."

On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 8:35 AM Anthony Barra <anthonymbarra@gmail.com>
wrote:

> In our 8th grade classroom, we have used Burke's (1941) "parlor" metaphor
> to support work on literary themes, argumentation, media analysis,
> role-playing, and class discussion:
>
> "Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others
>> have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a
>> discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is
>> about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them
>> got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all
>> the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide
>> that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar.
>> Someone answers you; you answer him; another comes to your defense;
>> another aligns himself against you, to either the embarrassment or
>> gratification of your opponent, depending upon the quality of your
>> ally's assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour
>> grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion
>> still vigorously in progress." Kenneth Burke, *The Philosophy of
>> Literary Form*
>
>
> In 1996, Russell Hunt, Gordon Wells, and others had an interesting xmca
> exchange on the topic of "Burke's Parlor," including Hunt's observation
> that "Gordon's narrative, which I think I prefer to Burke's, leaves out the
> agnostic character of the discussion: in Burke, writing in 1941, the
> assumption was that the conversation HAD to be a contest."  I don't think
> it does.
>
> Whether contest, dialogue, dialectic, or mere background noise, I hope
> this latest conversational turn is a contribution of value:
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEK3JV1Ux_5WEs1bAjoH_AXCxFMVAF6bF__;!!Mih3wA!W7tmJHlMLhZZaJSeTL-4zyxZoi5rH3fCW766WTglTGqxjpIszXCo9FZaKl1vI7C7_LFs7Q$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEK3JV1Ux_5WEs1bAjoH_AXCxFMVAF6bF__;!!Mih3wA!S7ys-XdCYKh3HU5OKRoNJuEgk62EmIhOla1afIpa9D1qrvWwtfoGFtCYeUPWbash32dSWA$>
>
>
> As a non-expert, I have been trying to learn in public, and I can promise
> that your current or future students will find this helpful. If this
> statement sounds reasonable, please feel free to share.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Anthony
>
> P.S. The two videos in the playlist are on the longer side; there was no
> way around that.
> While not a substitute, this collection of 2-3 minute snippets does
> contain a fair amount of overlap:
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEK3JV1Ux_5W2ZfG2I-J7prbfDUK_dIlo__;!!Mih3wA!W7tmJHlMLhZZaJSeTL-4zyxZoi5rH3fCW766WTglTGqxjpIszXCo9FZaKl1vI7BcLizFmA$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEK3JV1Ux_5W2ZfG2I-J7prbfDUK_dIlo__;!!Mih3wA!S7ys-XdCYKh3HU5OKRoNJuEgk62EmIhOla1afIpa9D1qrvWwtfoGFtCYeUPWbat46QJmlQ$>
>
>
>
>
>


-- 

Crush human humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it
will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of
rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the
same fruit, according to its kind.  C.Dickens.
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