TOW #13: "‘Black Lives Matter’—but Reality, Not So Much"

http://www.wsj.com/articles/black-lives-matterbut-reality-not-so-much-1441755075

This article was written by Jason L. Riley, an acclaimed African-American journalist who writes for The Wall Street Journal, the most trusted news outlet by both liberal and conservatives according to Business Insider. This article, titled “‘Black Lives Matter’—but Reality, Not So Much”, describes the flaws in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement that has surged in popularity recently. The author, being black, has automatic credibility in being able to openly criticize the movement without public backlash. He goes on to explain why the movement is counterproductive by creating more problems for the people it supposedly helps as well as explain the dishonesty behind the movement’s motives.

              In 2014, Michael Brown of Fergusson, Missouri was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson. This event caused the BLM movement’s popularity to increase exponentially. All around the country protestors chanted the “Hands up, don’t shoot!” slogan that Michael Brown shouted before he was killed. The thing is, Michael Brown did not say this. As Riley explains in his article, “The reality is that Michael Brown is dead because he robbed a convenience store, assaulted a uniformed officer and then made a move for the officer’s gun.” Despite this story being a known lie, BLM continues to protest around the country two years later about rampant racism in America’s law enforcement. Riley writes this article to the protestors to show that their anger is unjustified.

              Some of Riley’s strongest rhetoric comes in his rapid-stating of facts. He says, “The reality is that a cop is six times more likely to be killed by someone black than the reverse. The reality is that the Michael Browns are a much bigger threat to black lives than are the police. Every year, the casualty count of black-on-black crime is twice that of the death toll of 9/11,” He then goes on to explain how the spread of BLM’s falsehoods has a negative impact on Black Americans. He says “New Orleans to Baltimore to St. Louis and Chicago. The Washington, D.C., homicide rate is 43% higher than it was a year ago.” He is overwhelmingly effective in his argument simply because he is able to eliminate his opponent’s (BLM’s) credibility, but also their support, which he does by explaining their falsehoods and their negative impact.

TOW #12: "Maus" Part 1

              Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” describes Art’s sessions with his father, Vladek Spiegelman, who tells him the story of his experiences as a Jew during the Nazis’ invasion of Poland in WW2. As someone who experienced the war himself, Vladek has the greatest Credibility possible, a first-person account. Art shares Vladek’s story of his engagement before the war, his call to action following the 1939 invasion of Warsaw, his capture by the Nazi soldiers, his time in the POW camp, and his liberation from the camp, all in the first half of this novel. Vladek’s incredible story, combined with Art’s artistic talent, got “Maus” the first ever Pulitzer Prize awarded to a graphic novel.

              “Maus” was written for a post-Holocaust world. The purpose, as is the case with most accounts of war, is to bear witness. Vladek’s story aims to give the average civilian an idea of how traumatic war truly is. “Maus” was published in 1991, 52 years after the German invasion. Expectedly, memories of the event had been slipping away ever since it happened, and Art aimed to use his father’s story to remind society of the dangers that it holds.

              This being a graphic novel, the rhetorical devices appear, for the most part, in picture form. The main use of rhetoric is the extended metaphor of Jews being depicted as mice (hence the title, “Maus”). The imagery used shows the Jews as a helpless minority at the mercy of not only the Nazi soldiers, but eventually their neighbors. This imagery is also used to depict the Nazi soldiers as pigs and cats. The lack of any human pictures conveys the dehumanizing nature of war. The imagery is so effective because of how well it utilizes our tendencies to associate the assigned animals with certain characteristics. This is aided by Art’s ability to depict emotion through facial expression on the creatures.

TOW #11: Thomas Paine's "The American Crisis"

              “The American Crisis” by Thomas Paine is written as an argument to why America should want independence from Great Britain. The majority of the first chapter consists of anecdotes from Paine’s experience in fighting battles and how the soldiers who were currently fighting in the revolutionary war should learn from them. Paine establishes his credibility early on by stating that he served as a soldier. He shares his stories from the battle of Fort Lee, in which the Americans were forced to retreat by the British in 1776.Thomas Paine is most widely known for his book “common sense” which outlines why it was logical for America to be independent from Britain.

              The audience of Paine’s book is quite clearly the American citizens, specifically soldiers, fighting for independence against the British. This becomes evident no later than the first sentence, “These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” It is clear that this book was meant to be read during the miseries of war, times when the soldiers were freezing and hungry during the winter at Valley Forge.

              Paine motivates the soldiers with powerful diction that appeals to the readers’ pathos while also managing to connect with the soldiers reading it. He says “I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to feel, against the mean principles that are held by the Tories.” This reassures the miserable soldiers that there is an end to their sufferings and that there is a purpose meant to their misery. This motivates the soldiers to push through and be victorious. One can only imagine the effect that such strong words would have had on someone shivering in their hut in Valley Forge. Paine’s writings are certainly a partial reason for America’s victory.

TOW #10: Jeff Sessions Could Reverse Years Of Progress On Marijuana Policy

Jeff Sessions Could Reverse Years Of Progress On Marijuana Policy

              This article discusses Jeff Sessions, President Elect Donald Trump’s choice for Attorney General, and his position on the legalization of Cannabis. Generally, the article criticizes Trump’s choice as Sessions has expressed very anti-cannabis ideas that contradict ideas set forth by Trump himself. This editorial was written by Matt Ferner, a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles who specializes in writing about drug law. He has written four pieces on the subject of cannabis so far this November.

              This article was written for the American People in a time of great turmoil. Protest regarding Donald Trump’s victory have taken place around the country. The author of this editorial criticizes one of Trump’s actions (appointing Jeff Sessions as the Attorney General) and speaks to Trump’s critics.

              Although the editorial criticized Trump, the author uses rhetorical devices to maintain credibility and eliminate the sense of bias. This is seen when the author quotes Representative Earl Blumenauer, who believes “Trump likely picked Sessions because of the senator’s views on immigration, not weed.” However, the author compares Trump’s decision to step back on Drug policy. He says “Donald Trump’s decision heralds a return to the worst days of the drug war.” He also criticizes Sessions himself with an anecdote that claims Sessions was accused of believing that “the Ku Klux Klan was acceptable until he found out members smoked marijuana.”

              The author’s point in writing this text is clear, to encourage people to take a stand against politicians who are fighting for what so many people (and a rapidly increasing number of people) don’t want. The author is successful in doing so by emphasizing Trump’s hypocrisy in appointing someone he doesn’t agree with, Sessions’ highly questionable opinion that smoking cannabis is the worst thing the KKK does, but also by recognizing another side of the issue and appealing to the opposition of the argument by explaining that Trump may not be that hypocritical after all.

IRB Intro #2

I have chosen to read Art Spiegelman's Maus for my second IRB. This award-winning novel tells a second-hand story of the holocaust. The story comes from the author's father, who survived the Holocaust as a Polish Jew. As a Jew, the holocaust has always been s subject of fascination. However, as a human, the horrific acts that were committed fascinate me even more.

TOW #9: Donald Trump’s win will make Brexit more painful

Donald Trump’s win will make Brexit more painful

             This article discusses the recent presidential election that saw Donald Trump elected president of the United States, and how his victory will affect international business for the both the United States and United Kingdom. The publisher of this editorial was Britain’s The Economist, who has been ranked the most trusted news outlet in the world by Business Insider. Being an outlet based in the UK, their bias in the United States’ politics is minimal compared to America’s counterparts.

              In late June, 2016, the residents of the United Kingdom woke up to alarming news, they had seceded from the European Union in an event soon to be known as “Brexit.” To many, this was a sign of impending doom. Britain would need to find new trading partners, the Pound would lose value, and investments would slow. The reality turned out to not be as dramatic as predicted, at least not yet. However, on the morning of Wednesday, November 9^th, Americans woke up to a similar feeling. Donald Trump, who has called himself “Mr. Brexit”, was elected president. Now the terror that flowed through Britain in June is back. This article appeals to the residents of Britain and explains the likely impact Trump will have on trade between the US and the UK. In the concluding paragraphs, the article speaks directly to Theresa May, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, about how to handle the situation with Britain’s interests in mind.

              The most obvious rhetorical device is the extended metaphor between Trump’s election and Britain leaving the EU, and how the aftermath affected their countries. Other comparisons are seen when the author compares relatively inexperienced Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton, who they describe as n “instinctive Anglophile”, implying that a victory for Clinton would have been better for Britain. This idea is further backed up with logic when the author references Trump’s expressed loathing of foreign trade to show how Britain is likely to lose business with the United States. The rhetoric in this article is effective because it follows such a logical path.

TOW #8 Freakonomics" Part Two

            In the second half of Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, they slowly transition from one complex ides to another. It begins by continuing to explore the mindset of dug-dealers. It then uses the information presented to explore the causes of the unpredicted fall in crime during the 1990s. From there, the authors discuss parents. Specifically, who makes the best parents and what is under parents’ control. They finish by discussing the effect that a person’s name has on their success and opportunities in life.

            The most important idea presented in the second half of the book is that preconceptions can be not only inaccurate, but they also drive people, even experts, away from the true answers. This is best shown in chapter four. When crack cocaine began to take over entire cities, and crime began to rapidly increase in the 1980s and early 1990s, experts predicted that crimes would reach a level that would make the country dangerous to live in. Instead, crime rate abruptly, and drastically fell. Many causes were cited. These included the increased reliance on prisons (which had a significant role to play but was not the main reason), and more rigorous police tactics (which was the most cited cause but later proved to not have any effect on crime. The real main cause was the sudden nationwide legalization of abortion following the Roe v. Wade case. This idea is supported by showing similar situations in Romania after abortion was legalized.

            In the first half of the book, each chapter was a series of anecdotes used to support a thesis regarding a central anecdote. In the second half. The chapters are continually referenced throughout, making them a sort of extended metaphor. The story of the drug-dealers here used to explain how legal abortions stopped crime. The facts about abortion were used to explain why nature is different from nurture (which explains why many aborted children would be destined to life of crime), and the analysis of naming concludes the comparison.

TOW #7: "Gallons of Light" (visual text)

Tesla Model S: "Gallons of Light" Commercial

This commercial tells the story of the Knapp family, who took a road trip in their all-electric Tesla Model S. Not only that, but they used free, solar-powered charging stations to recharge their vehicle. This advertisement was created by Jordan Bloch who has also created commercials viewed over 20 million times on Facebook and YouTube. The subject of the commercial was Tesla’s Model S. Tesla was experiencing one of the most prolonged and significant rises in stock value in recent history and their new solar-powered public charging stations had just begun construction around the country.

The most obvious intended audience for this commercial is drivers concerned about the environment. This is shown through the emphasis on “all electric” and how the narrator descries the road trip as being “sponsored by the power of the sun.” An interesting piece of rhetoric that is easy to miss is the license plate of the car which says “4GET OIL” (obviously meaning “forget oil”). This message appeals further to customers concerned about the environment. The “4GET IL” can be seen as hopeful thinking that humans’ dependency on a limited resource for transportation may soon be ending. It may also perhaps be viewed as condescending, someone driving a Tesla can ride smugly over those whose lives are at the mercy of gasoline.

Other subtle forms of rhetoric include the young boy looking out the window at a pump jack with a look of curiosity. The pump jack, a machine used to suck oil out of the ground, may never be a significant part of the boy’s life. It certainly doesn’t mean much to him at the time. Overall, the rhetoric conveys an optimistic attitude. In addition to selling the revolutionary car, the commercial induces a new sense of hopefulness and motivation to fix the environment that I believe is the true goal of Tesla.

TOW #6: The largest methane leak in U.S. history began one year ago at Aliso Canyon. What have we learned since then?

The largest methane leak in U.S. history began one year ago at Aliso Canyon. What have we learned since then?

              In this editorial, the author shares the story of the largest leak of methane gas in United States history. It happened in Aliso Canyon, California and it released more than 90,000 metric tons of the potent greenhouse gas. The article later describes the negative effects that it had on neighboring residents. This particular piece was written by The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board. This group is comprised of nine individual writers who have each gained years of experience in, our outside of The Los Angeles Times.

              This article was written for an indefinite audience. The issues present have the ability to impact each and every person in the country on a profound scale. The writing is used to persuade readers into taking their own actions to increase the currently insufficient progress being made. This article was written after the worst methane leak in the history of the country. Not only did it force nearby citizens to relocate due to the methane’s impact on their health, but it caused an energy shortage. Furthermore, it was written during a time period in which the effects of fossil-fuel addiction are becoming ever more apparent.

              The author begins the text with an anecdote of how the leak came about. They describe how the leak was thought to be small and routine. The author’s then use a litote and say “the leak was neither small nor routine.” Implying that the leak was profound while also instilling a sense of uncertainty and dread. This is much more effective than presenting the 90,000 metric tons statistic at the beginning. Without context, the statistic is meaningless to the reader. The authors proceed by appeal to readers’ emotions. They tell the story of the 8,000 families forced to relocate due to the sickening smell of the gas.” In fact, residents in the surrounding area still experience frequent nausea, nosebleeds, and even rashes. The authors also tell how the fear of widespread power-outages would have caused the state to grind to a holt had it not been for a summer of unusually low power-usage. These stories appeal to fear. If the facts regarding fossil fuels’ danger did not convince readers to take action, the fear of the consequences of over-dependence will.

TOW #5 "Obama Calls for New Cooperation to Wrangle the ‘Wild West’ Internet"

              This article discusses President Obama’s recent comment that he internet has become “the wild wild west.” He made these comments during a gathering in Palo Alto, California. He spoke alongside figures like Tim cook, the CEO of Apple. Together, they proposed ideas as to how major corporations and intelligence agencies might share information in a more protected way. The report on the events were given by Nicole Perlroth and David E. Sanger. Combined, these two have written over 5,000 articles for The New York Times.

              It is quite clear that this article was written for the modern audience. The issue of cyber-security is a profound and rapidly-changing one. The ways in which we, as a society, handle the developing threats are critical to keeping the information of the world safe. The New York Times, like all media, benefits from attention and thus would be hasty to write an article that appeals to people’s fears. The article states that Obama chose to have the event around Stanford University because it is largely acclaimed to be the birthplace of the internet.

              The most prevalent rhetoric is Obama’s metaphor of the internet being like the wild west. This metaphor is extended by the idea of major corporations being asked to take the role of Sheriff. The article’s commentary on the events display sarcasm towards the end of the report. While quoting many of the figures who spoke at the event on how important trust between the corporations and intelligence agencies is to maintaining a safe cyberspace, the article mentions how “intelligence agencies were surreptitiously siphoning off customer data from companies like Google and Yahoo as it flowed internally between their data centers.” Tis is made particularly effective by its juxtaposition to a quote from the Vice-President of security at Google, who said, “The tricky thing with information-sharing is that it is about trust, information-sharing becomes pretty hard to do once trust is lost.” The purpose of this sarcasm was to show that there is still a large amount of work to do in order to achieve the goal of safety, and the authors prove it with the goals themselves.

TOW #4: "Freakonomics" by Steven B. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubned (Part One)

              Why are schoolteachers like sumo wrestlers? What makes the KKK similar to a group of real-estate agents? Why do drug dealers live with their moms if they make so much money? These are the main topics of conversation discussed in the first half of Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubned’s Freakonomics. The authors, both being economists, attempt to explain seemingly inexplicable phenomena through the lens of economics. All the issues explored are used to answer a question, “How do humans respond to incentives?”

              Although the questions mentioned above are the main focuses of the first three chapters, the authors’ analysis involves the discussion of many other issues. In fact, the entire book is simply a collection of anecdotes used to answer the topic question of each chapter. One that was particularly interesting was the story of Paul Feldman. After showing how even some of the most acclaimed professions such as school teachers and sumo wrestlers can, and do, cheat, Levitt and Dubned answer a pressing question, “Are all humans innately corrupt?” The answer to this question lies in the story of Paul Feldman, a bagel salesman. Essentially, Feldman would drive to an office building early in the day, drop off a basket of bagels and a money jar, and come back to pick them up in the evening. This would seem to be a horrible plan as most customers would just take a bagel without paying, but astonishingly, Feldman’s income averaged roughly 87% of his bagel sales.

              This particular anecdote epitomizes the authors’ purpose. As seemingly impossible outcomes are presented, the reader begins to change the way they think. Not only does the reader think about how human’s act, but how we, both individuals and society as a whole, evaluate ourselves. This book shows how complex an issue can be even when there appears to be a certain right and wrong. In response to the bagel story, the authors explain “If morality represents the way we would like the world to work, and economics represents how it actually does work, then the story of Feldman’s bagel business lies at the very intersection of morality and economics.” As humans, we are wired to think about situations morally, but Freakonomics shows that the human way of thinking is fundamentally flawed.

TOW #3 9/25

              This political cartoon shows an iPhone (evidently a generation 5 or later), symbolizing millennials, with an iPhone charging cord (for generation 4 or earlier) is labeled as Hillary Clinton. This cartoon was published in The San Diego Tribune. Although their political bias is often debated, The San Diego Tribune is generally thought of as a conservative-leaning newspaper. This is likely to be the reason why it featured a cartoon meant to mock Hillary Clinton, the Presidential nominee for the opposing political party. The cartoon was also published to show why millennials overwhelmingly sided with Bernie Sanders and not Hillary Clinton earlier in the 2016 race.

              This cartoon was most likely made for millennials. This is evident in the fact that the author uses iPhone charging ports to symbolize the disconnection between Clinton and millennials. A younger audience would understand this much quicker than an audience of adults. The idea behind the cartoon is that Hillary is too old-fashioned and too traditional. This means that she has not been in line with the way that young voters think. Her rival for the nomination, Bernie Sanders, expressed a passion for new ideas that attracted the majority of young voters. The artist is able to demonstrate this in the cartoon by depicting Hillary as an out-of-date chord, and the millennials as the newest iPhone.

              The main device that the artist uses in this cartoon is objectification. They objectify both Hillary and millennials. The objectification of Hillary as an outdated (at least to the millennials) charging chord represents that her way of thinking is not compatible with theirs. Evidently, the artist is correct. Young voters overwhelmingly sided with Bernie Sanders. However, if the author’s purpose was to criticize Hillary Clinton, they were not entirely successful. The young voters that this cartoon applied to have become Hillary supporters, for the most part. The metaphors used in the cartoon applied specifically to this younger audience, and they seem to have moved on from what it ridicules.

TOW #2 9/18

Trump Makes his Birther Lie Worse

This article discusses the most recent story surrounding Donald Trump. Earlier in Trump's campaign, he made hints and claims that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. These hints actually began with Trump’s first campaign in 2011. This weekend however, he claims that Obama was, in fact, born in the U.S. He then pointed fingers at his opponent Hillary Clinton, saying she began the rumor that Obama was not. The article was written by Gail Collins. She has worked for The New York Times for twenty-one years and was the first woman to hold the position of “Editorial Page Editor.”

The New York Times has a predominately liberal audience, and because of this, one would expect negative bias to be present in an article discussing the republican presidential nominee. However, the article is mostly composed of quotes said by Trump himself. The only bias that is present is the author’s response to those quotes. She uses sarcasm throughout the article. She quotes Trump from 2011 when he said “Three weeks ago I thought he was born in this country. Right now I have some real doubts. I have people that actually have been studying it, and they cannot believe what they’re finding,” she then remarks that “We never did learn what they found. But Trump has continued to get some of his most startling information from ‘people’.” She uses sarcasm later when responding to a quote from Former Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, that Trump had changed his mind two or three years ago. Collins points out that this is the same time that Trump tweeted “How amazing, the State Health Director who verified copies of Obama’s ‘birth certificate’ died in plane crash today. All others lived.”

It is clear that Collins has an opinion about Donald Trump, and not a positive one. She is also writing to a mostly-liberal audience. Her prolonged sarcasm is used to make Trump look unintelligent to support her own ideas as well as satisfy the liberal audience. Her sarcasm, although used with bias, is based entirely off of facts. Trump did say all the things Collins sarcastically quotes him of saying and he said them when she says he said them. This makes Collin’s article extremely effective. If someone were to refute her work in defense of Trump, they would first have to attack Trump’s words.

TOW #1 9/11

Tow #1

Article - VW Engineer Pleads Guilty in U.S. Criminal Case Over Diesel Emissions

            This article showcases the recent events concerning the Volkswagen emission scandals that were uncovered in 2015. The popular car company was caught cheating on emissions tests by including software that would decrease nitro-oxide emissions when it detected the car was being tested at the expense of efficiency. Specifically, it mentions the recent confessions made by Volkswagen engineer James Robert Liang, who recently pleaded guilty. The author, Hiroko Tabuchi, has been writing about Business for The New York Times for eight years. In 2013, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting.

            It seems this article was written for people concerned about the future of Volkswagen. The author’s style of writing, however, appeals more to an audience wanting to see the giant topple. This article was written almost a year after the scandal was first discovered by the public, which has given writers enough time to gather what they need to disgrace the German carmaker. The author uses these gatherings to contribute to her scornful tone. She includes quotes from VW executive’s emails that read “regulators are still waiting for Answers. We still have no good explanations!!!!!” This particular quote is included to make the executives of Volkswagen seem desperate and childish.

            The author then quotes the chief of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section who says that this was “the first shoe to drop”. This idiom means that there is an inevitable next step in the process and that Volkswagen will have to endure, and that Volkswagen is destined to lose the battle. The author villainizes Volkswagen at the end of the article by saying that the prosecutor’s office of Lower Saxony, a town in which Volkswagen powers most of the economy, was reluctant to comment. It would be impossible to deny that Volkswagen is in the wrong and so it is relatively easy for the author to villainize them in this article, and Tabuchi is certainly successful in portraying them that way.

IRB #1

I have chosen to read "Freakonomics" by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt for my first IRB. This popular piece applies principles of economics to everyday situations such as parenting and cheating. I have been recommended this book more times than I can remember and I am finally getting it off my bucket-list. I think it will strongly appeal to my love for math and science and make for a great read!

Okinawa: The Bloodiest Battle of All

In William Manchester’s essay, Okinawa: The Bloodiest Battle of All, he describes his experience fighting the battle off the coast of Japan during WW2 and how it has affected him. He also gives background about war and how it has evolved to what it is today. Manchester’s writing is unarguable because it is based almost entirely off his personal experience of battle as well as his life after the battle.

          This essay, although it mostly talks about the battle, is written at the time of a reunion. Manchester, along with other American Veterans who fought at Okinawa, were to meet up with veterans who fought for the Japanese. Manchester then sets about explaining why this reunion happens as well as why the tense feelings around it are the only thing the Americans and the Japanese have in common. However, Manchester’s ultimate purpose in writing this essay is one that seems synonymous in almost every veteran’s writing: bearing witness. He wants to tell the younger audience what war is really like. Manchester goes to great lengths to describe what he thinks is a horrible attitude he sees in America. He talks about the parades he sees and how the “myths of warfare are embedded deep in our ancestral memories.”

          The most important rhetorical device in the essay by far is the allusion to Sands of Iwo Jima. Manchester makes his essay about spreading the truth of war and the dramatic 1949 film is everything he, as well as all his fellow veterans, have grown to hate. This film depicts the war in such an embarrassingly dishonest manner, that when the star, John Wayne, appears at the hospital where Manchester and other gravely wounded veterans are, they boo him out before he could even make a statement. Sections of the essay like this make it seem like it was written for other veterans. Surely veterans who saw battle could laugh and clap at that story but to others, it is slightly depressing to read about someone getting booed out by a bunch of wounded veterans. Nonetheless, Manchester perfectly executes his purpose. He exposes the “myths of warfare.”

via pinterest.com Andy Noble
Fighter Jets fly over football stadium while the fans show their enthusiasm for the killing machines.

"...they regard uniforms, decorations, and Sousa machines as exalted, and those who argue otherwise are regarded as unpatriotic."

The Creation Myths of Cooperstown

Stephen Gould wrote The Creation Myths of Cooperstown for the Natural History Magazine. As a Harvard Graduate working in paleontology and evolutionary biology, Gould has had plenty of experience dealing with creation myths. Gould begins his essay by explaining an incident in which a man named George Hull created a huge man out of gypsum, buried it underground, pretended to discover it, and told everyone he had found some sort of biblical being. He then explains that a disappointingly large portion of the public fell for this. Gould then compares this to the creation myths of baseball. He explains that it is ridiculous to say that baseball was invented at one point in time. Baseball simply evolves.

          Upon reading this essay, the author’s frustration is evident.. He is frustrated with the baseball creation myth but also probably with a much larger creation myth in the book of genesis. Gould debunks the creation myths of baseball, and also the one of the Cardiff Giant, to reveal how uncritical the public is, and maybe the reader too. Gould is not a baseball historian; he is an evolutionary biologist. This essay is a mere example in Gould’s much bigger argument against the creation story of the bible. He reveals this near the end of the article by diving into Darwinian evolution.

          The way in which Gould makes these arguments is interesting. First, there is the indirect allusion to the “Bible vs Science Debate,” which he references when he draws “contrast between creation and evolution stories of baseball.” However, baseball is not the true focus of the essay, and neither is the Cardiff Giant. This makes the majority of the essay seem like mere anecdotes, or at least extended metaphors. The true creation myth of Genesis is comparable to the creation myth of baseball, and Gould uses the myths of baseball and the Cardiff Giants, which we know to be false, to show that anyone choosing the bible over modern science could be falling for a massive trick. It would be impossible to argue against that.

via ebay.com
The evolution of baseball.

The Disposable Rocket

             John Updike’s The Disposable Rocket describes what it is like to live in an ageing man’s body. He discusses the struggles and the advantages of the male body and compares them to those of a female’s body as well as how both bodies gradually betray their owners. He also delves into the mental differences and how the genders vary in thought. The writer, John Updike, has had the honor of working alongside many famous authors including J. D. Salinger, Henry Green, and James Joyce. Updike himself won the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1980 for his book Rabbit is Rich.

          When Updike wrote this essay, he was on the receiving end of his body’s betrayal. As a 59-year-old man, Updike realized that his body had begun to give up at his expense. Updike wrote this essay to make younger readers appreciate their bodies while they can, and to take care of them. Another reason he may have wrote it is to explain the experience of being a man to women reading the essay. Since nearly everyone will only ever experience what it’s like to be one gender, it can be very helpful to gain understanding of the other. For these reasons, Updike was likely writing towards a younger audience. An older man reading this essay would not learn as much, but may enjoy it as they could relate to Updike’s struggles.

          Most of the essay is an onslaught of literary devices. In the very first sentence, Updike describes inhabiting a man’s body as “much like having a bank account.” He concludes with the analogy of a man and his body being like a boy and his buddy with his parents’ car keys, you’re “just along for the ride.” These metaphors and analogies make Updike’s claims easier for the reader to understand. While the way he describes ageing is powerful, his comparisons between male and female bodies are questionable. No one has substantial credibility to speak on the other gender’s behalf.

via reddit.com u/slivr33

"Any accounting of male-female differences must include the male’s superior recklessness, a drive not, I think, toward death, as the darkest feminist cosmogonies would have it, but to test the limits, to see what the traffic will bear—a kind of mechanic’s curiosity"