Rich: A Rhetoric of Fitness: Persuasion and Perspiration

Rich, Susanna. “A Rhetoric of Fitness: Persuasion and Perspiration.” Et cetera. Fall 1996. 266-274.

Very accessible voice—not formal academic.
267 cites three rhetorical routines on contemporary fitness: divide and conquer; measure up

267 forms of measurement: time; weight; counts from a trainer; numbers of reps; heart rate
268 states a core message is More, Farther, Faster, Now
268-9 the pressure generates/ results in a form of dependence upon externals like videos, gyms etc
270 “Instead of getting into it, we are always struggling to get it over with.”
271 fitness conversations are one way, from the instructor or trainer down to the person—it is not a dialogue
272 we are isolated from one another; genders are often isolated; muscles are often isolated for development (spot exercises)

273 sisyphus as model for current fitness programs
274 put out makes us self-conscious and dependent
divide and conuer keeps us vulnerable and malleable
measure up helps to calculate and collocate thousands of clients.
we are meant to work for the programs, they are not meant to work for us (almost literal quote)

Eco: The Wolf & The Lamb

Eco, Umberto. "The Wolf and the Lamb: The Rhetoric of Oppression." Turning Back the Clock: Hot Wars and Media Populism. Harcourt, 2006. Orlando.

This is a great essay by Eco on rhetoric and oppression.

45-46 aristotle and some definitions of rhetoric

Lots of discussion about begging the question, how oppressors structure arguments/persuasion to manipulate folks, etc.

A nice linking between classical rhetoric and contemporary issues in the gulf with some WW I and WW II references to help set the tone. As always, it is written beautifully.

Aristotle: Rhetoric: Book I: Ch 9

Consequently, whenever you want to praise any one, think what you would urge people to do; and when you want to urge the doing of anything, think what you would praise a man for having done.

I need to think about this, but it seems like a masterful approach to manipulation. Again, this needs consideration.

Praise is the expression in words of the eminence of a man's good qualities, and therefore we must display his actions as the product of such qualities. Encomium refers to what he has actually done; the mention of accessories, such as good birth and education, merely helps to make our story credible -- good fathers are likely to have good sons, and good training is likely to produce good character. Hence it is only when a man has already done something that we bestow encomiums upon him. Yet the actual deeds are evidence of the doer's character: even if a man has not actually done a given good thing, we shall bestow praise on him, if we are sure that he is the sort of man who would do it. To call any one blest is, it may be added, the same thing as to call him happy; but these are not the same thing as to bestow praise and encomium upon him; the two latter are a part of "calling happy," just as goodness is a part of happiness.

Reading this made me wonder what we have currently which is similar to or functions as an encomium. Does a positive 30 second news spot count as one? Do media representations of good deeds actually have the same cultural important that formal encomiums did in ancient Greece? I wonder just how important or lost the role of praise and honor have become in modern culture. Again, more to think about.

Rhetoric & Training & Greece: Potential Texts

Bodily Arts: Rhetoric and Athletics in Ancient Greece
By Debra Hawhee
Published by University of Texas Press, 2004
ISBN 0292705840, 9780292705845
226 pages

Check out The Arts of Training chapter



Hawhee, Debra.
Agonism and Arete
Philosophy and Rhetoric - Volume 35, Number 3, 2002, pp. 185-207

Appears to be very similar to the first chapter of her book Bodily Arts.



The Poet as Athlete
Mary R. Lejkowit
Journal of Sport History, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Summer, 1984)


In press, in Sport in the Cultures of the Ancient World, edited by Z.
Papakonstantinou. Special issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport.
London and New York: Routledge, 2009.
Sport, war and democracy in classical Athens
David M. Pritchard
School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics, University of Queensland,
Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia. Email: d.pritchard@uq.edu.au



The Smell of Sweat: Greek Athletics, Olympics, and Culture
By William Blake Tyrrell
Published by Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2004
ISBN 086516553X, 9780865165533
264 pages

Paper Topics 5364

I like to start thinking about things early.

From TOPIC:

The term paper will be a typical academic study of about 4000-5000 words, or about 16-20 pages double spaced, 12 point New Times Roman. Obviously, the primary subject will be classical Rhetoric, but your thesis may extend beyond just our time period, 500 BC to 400 AD, and beyond the tradition of oral political and judicial oratory. What I mean by this is that you may apply the precepts we will study to other times and even other genres of expression. We will talk more about this in the coming weeks, but if you’ve read my slightly incendiary little essay, “What is Classical Rhetoric?” (item 1.1), you should realize that I take Rhetoric, even classical Rhetoric, as the essential element (beyond language itself) of what I somewhat clinically refer to as the “negotiated society,” more easily understood as the “free society” or democracy.

and more:

In these ways, classical Rhetoric should not be thought of as existing in an isolated time period “back then,” but instead seen as the original paradigm of how society functions when it functions well. This paradigm, or these paradigms, are applicable to a wide range of human endeavors -- politics, art, war, education, business.

Your principal subject must be classical Rhetoric, of course, but you may either further explain something you find interesting in the period or compare-and-contrast with something operating entirely outside the period. What you should avoid is a "report," or a summary of what scholars have already summarized.

The key points that have my attention are in bold.

Potential Topics:
Compare/contrast current/classic rhet surrounding olympics (broad)
same but combat sports, i.e. classic pankration and current MMA
rhetoric of sports or combat
rhetoric re: warriors/atheletes

focus on the epideitic rhetoric of sports?

Google Scholar produced a number of good results, and views, on pankration

B&H notes

These are notes for my own use. They are reminders, refreshers, or things I have never bothered to clarify until now. Or they are simply notes.

Epistemology: ways of knowing; nature of knowledge; way people acquire knowledge

Dialectic: practice of inquiry & argumentation through conversation/Q&A (Aristotle)

Parturition: process of giving birth

Rhetoric:
Classical: Greeks to 400 CE
Medieval: to 1400 CE
Ren: to 1700
Enlightenment: late 17th to 18th cent
19th: obvious
Modern & Post-Modern (isn't it hubristic to believe that we can accomplish two very different forms of rhetoric in less than one century? Perhaps these forms will not be seen as so different in a couple centuries.)

Rhetoric: largely prescriptive & not a form of inquiry (B&H 2)
Rhetorical theory seeks to penetrate the complexities of communication & persuasion.

Classical Rhetoric has 3 kinds of public speech:
1. Legal/forensic: regards the past, courts, judgment
2. Deliberative/political: to persuade for future; legislation
3. Ceremonial/ epideictic: to strengthen beliefs about the present; address public


Speech Prep 5 Steps
Invention
Arrangement
Style
Memory
Delivery

Topoi: stock formulas in which arguments can be cast

Syllogism: form of deductive reasoning: major premise, minor premise, conclusion that results

Enthymeme: