Lexicon of Rhetoric

Ad Bellum Purificandum

[lexrhetoricae]

I was in the Outside for three hours today and somehow Kai is the one who feels the need to hide her face from the World. #isolationlife https://www.instagram.com/p/CFLuS_BBo5C/?igshid=11yyll9nsa0b7

[lexrhetoricae]

#gish is a great excuse to open the new acrylic set and do some right brain work. https://www.instagram.com/p/B_dUdbkhbHv/?igshid=1nurq4dgk34yc

[punkconcert]

John Mulaney, a true ADHD icon

[somewhat-honest-abe]

I love how he gave this bit at an autism benefit because it is also a heavy Autism Mood™

[gh0sthoodie]

This is the most relatable thing I’ve ever seen.

[vulpeculavolans]

TRANSCRIPT:

JOHN MULANEY: I normally don’t notice people. I zone out constantly. Have you ever zoned out for a few minutes? I’ve been zoned out since 2014.

AUDEINCE LAUGHS

MULANEY: I just - all day long, I wander into traffic walking like Charlie Chaplin, listening to a podcast while thinking about a different podcast. 

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

MULANEY: I can zone out anywhere - I was at the doctor’s office, he was reading me the results of a blood test, it was important I listened, and I zoned out! I was like, “nah, I’m gonna stare at the wall and think my thoughts”.

AUDIENCE MEMBER WHOOPS

MULANEY: I was like, “huh. None of the Beatles had moustaches… but then one day, all of them had moustaches.”

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

MULANEY: “That’s weird, I can’t think of a time a group has done that”. Some people in my life don’t want me to zone out as much - they want me to focus, and they want me to be in the moment, and they want me to do this by meditating. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried meditating, but I’ve been trying it. This is how you meditate, okay? You sit on the floor with your back perfectly straight, which I hate more than ISIS -

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

MULANEY: I don’t like sitting up straight! Alright?! It’s never gonna happen! If meditating was sitting hunched over on the toilet with your elbow on your knee while kind of looking at your phone, I’d be the Dalai Lama.  

AUDIENCE LAUGHS/APPLAUDS

MULANEY: I don’t like sitting up straight. So you sit up straight, and you breathe, and this helps you stay in the moment. Don’t bother! The moment is mediocre at best!

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

MULANEY: I mean, it’s fine. Let’s all try right now - let’s all be in the moment, in silence, right now. [A HALF-SECOND PAUSE] Sucked, right? Not fun at all! 

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

MULANEY: That was boring! You gotta zone out! You have an imagination! You have a movie theatre in your brain that plays fake arguments that you win.

AUDIENCE LAUGHS/APPLAUDS

MULANEY: Have you ever just been sitting there thinking about something for twenty, twenty-five minutes, and all of a sudden you’re like “oh my god, I’m driving!” and you remember? You’re like -

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

MULANEY: “I’m going seventy-five miles an hour! I have been for a while! I could’ve changed so many lives!” Sometimes, my wife - I have this wife - she’ll be like, “are you watching the road?” and I’m always like, “I am looking through the windshield.”

AUDIENCE LAUGHS

MULANEY: “And I’m not gonna hit anyone, but no. I’m thinking about the Beatles.”

[whatsitnot]

Hey @vulpeculavolans added a transcript to this AND THAT IS SO AWESOME THANK YOU SO MUCH!

[worstseawitch]

“I’m gonna stare at the wall and think my thoughts.” Is my true ADHD/Autism experience lmaoooo

[lexrhetoricae]

I'm taking a mindfulness class right now, and I have TOTALLY thought "the moment is mediocre, at best" when the instructor tells us to be on the moment.

Why be in "the" moment when I can be in at least three other moments all at once? Or one moment that is not THIS moment at all? Like, be in someone else's moment?

[peri-hellion]

Professors who don’t offer extensions on essays are wild to me because academics have never turned anything in on time, like EVER. Like there was a big conference paper deadline last week and all of my colleagues are like ‘eh, as long as we get in a week after no one’s gonna care, right?’ which is FINE! but then imagine turning around and yelling at your students because they’re horribly overscheduled and need some more time with their papers. 

[lexrhetoricae]

Me, before tenure: GET IT IN BY 11:59PM OR I WILL DEDUCT 10 PERCENT OF PPINTS PER DAY LATE AND ALSO MAYBE 5 YEARS OF YOUR LIFE. I MEAN IT. I AM SERIOUS AND PROFESSIONAL.

me post-tenure:

[transformativeworks]

An update from our Legal committee regarding the unofficial AO3 reader apps that we’ve been hearing about this weekend: some more information, FAQs and advice. otw.news/reader-apps-92d0c

[olderthannetfic]

The official word is exactly what I’d expect.

[clockwaysarts]

I'm going to call this one Hokusai I think*. A crashing wave of a fox!

[lexrhetoricae]

The student literary journal I advise has adopted the fox as their logo and mascot. We've been looking for a piece of art or jewelry we could give to the editor this year, and this has given me something to look for. It would be *perfect*

[lexrhetoricae]

I think they missed me. Either that, or it's colder in here than I think. Academic conferences are exhausting, even when they are thoroughly enjoyable and (maybe especially) when they are engaging. I'm proud to have helped build the new Southeastern Association of Cultural Studies and to be present at the first annual conference. If you do any work on a humanistic discipline and live in the SE United States, you should join us next year. This conference wiped me out, though. Interdisciplinary work in rhetoric, media, pedagogy, and language led me taking pages of notes to add to my own research. I had three first year undergrads with me, presenting about @markiplier and the way he "teaches" rhetoric. And we had both a tornado threat AND snow in 48 hours. My spoon level is 0, pain spiking to 7, and I have no idea how I'm going to get through this week. So I'm hiding under two down blankets, three cats, last week's Unas Annus vids, and a pile of unread fanfic tabs. Grading can wait 12 hours. #catsofinstagram #sundaynightfangirling #professoring #spoonie https://www.instagram.com/p/B8XbpNIB3uA/?igshid=35zchusc2p42

[gerrycanavan]

SCIENCE FICTION FILM AND TELEVISION Call for Reviews 2020!

SCIENCE FICTION FILM AND TELEVISION Call for Reviews 2020!

The academic journal Science Fiction Film and Television(Liverpool University Press) is seeking reviewers of recent SF visual media (still primarily film and television, though we remain interested in expanding into video games).   Reviews typically run 1000-2000 words, or 2000-4000 words in our “review essay” format. Samples of both types of review are available upon request.   We are…

View On WordPress

[lexrhetoricae]

Reblogging to remind myself. I want to do more reviews this year so that I can get caught back up in the field of "television" studies (whatever that means in the era of digital streaming).

[copperbadge]

Hey guys, radio free Monday may be late/postponed until tomorrow. I'm at immediate care because I don't remember going to bed last night; I think I fell and concussed myself. I'm getting seen so I'm going to be okay, but life is a little on hold until I know what's going on.

[copperbadge]

On the way to the emergency room for a CT scan. Doctor says there's probably nothing to worry about but he wants to be sure. So I'm mostly worrying about the death wish my Lyft driver appears to have.

[copperbadge]

Good news guys, I'm definitely not bleeding in the brain!

I'm about to get released from emergency with fun new CT scans. Still feeling pretty dopey from the concussion but I am certified Not Dying. The day is looking up!

[lexrhetoricae]

Always get a CD copy of your CT, MRI, X-ray, and ultrasounds! Not only does it help your medical records stay complete, but they make for fun viewing during parties (particularly colonoscopies!)

[creature-features]

Have a Sunday. #atari (at Toronto, Ontario) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5iTS3-nvCQ/?igshid=1alifcgmxt1fl

[lexrhetoricae]

Why do we like to look at old tech? What pleasures do we get from historicizing and archiving the recent past?

How does this love of the look, the techno-gaze, the history of mass entertainment rites compete with the other narratives of our rapidly changing technosphere? When we coo at old games, sigh wistfully at the sweet sounds of a dialup modem, and show screenshots of the internet "back in the day," what stories about postmodern life, or late capitalism survival are we telling?

What other histories are we erasing?

And how aware are we of these problematic moves when we share "You know you were an 80s kid when..."? Have we given in to our Being being defined by our consumption, or is this fond, affectionate look back a kind of resistant reading of our current culture?

Are we experiencing an occupational psychosis that leads to strained incapacity, even as we look on in adoration? Or is this move to romanticize the texhnologic past a new kind of criticism that even Kenneth Burke couldn't anticipate and Zizek doesn't understand?

[lmages-remade]

was trying to sleep but then my third eye snapped open involuntarily so I had to make this

[kumabearsweetheart-deactivated2]

Wait. *does some research* They checked me for tinnitus SO MANY TIMES. I could tell them when the class next door was watching TV. Or that there was something weird about the electronics in the room (that often would break the next day or so but nobody ELSE put that together). The high pitched noise bothered me so I complained a lot. And they test me for tinnitus. Nobody ever once tested me for ADHD. As an adult I’ve become convinced that I have ADHD and that it explains a lot about me, about my childhood, about everything. I’ll just add this to the ever-increasing pile. It has its own room now.

[ancestorglade]

This would explain a lot for me too, I can hear the power strip near my bed, the kitchen appliances, etc. People think I’m joking, and nothing has ever been found to be wrong with my hearing and the ear specialist I went to said I don’t have tinnitus. This would explain so much.

[chickenonabicycle]

The experiences you two describe are very common in people with ADHD and/or autism. We don’t filter out sounds like that, while neurotypicals do, so we often hear things they don’t. Electronics are the most common example.

Tinnitus is more a sound that’s always there regardless of where you are or what you’re doing (always the same high pitch is the most common form, though there are other types).

Tinnitus: internal damage to your cochlea, usually from over-exposure to loud sounds, triggering the constant hearing of the pitch that’s connected to the place that’s damaged.

ADHD/autism: sensory sensitivities and the inability to filter the sounds around you, causing you to hear things that others can’t even though they’re real.

For some people, ADHD also has a thing where pure silence has a sound. It’s hard to explain but I call it brain static.

[era-eu]

Bitch!!!!! Nobody told me the brain static was because of my ADHD!!!!! Bro!!! I thought I was going deaf!!!

[onyxmoonstone]

I heard it from my phone once. Freaked me the fuck out.

[jazzybot4]

*That’s why the silence screams* holy shit. Holy *shit*.

[lexrhetoricae]

I've always been able to hear lightning. Not the crack noise, but a harmonic hum. I found out in my 20s that many with fibromyalgia (who also are "hypersensory") also hear this. I was diagnosed with ADD (no H) this summer, and tinnitus. When the Addrrall is active, everything is so damn quiet that I get equally unnerved: when you've heard and felt things unfiltered since childhood and now are 39, the absence of the buzz is both liberating and horrifying. Why is the universe so silent?

[lmages-remade]

was trying to sleep but then my third eye snapped open involuntarily so I had to make this

[kumabearsweetheart-deactivated2]

Wait. *does some research* They checked me for tinnitus SO MANY TIMES. I could tell them when the class next door was watching TV. Or that there was something weird about the electronics in the room (that often would break the next day or so but nobody ELSE put that together). The high pitched noise bothered me so I complained a lot. And they test me for tinnitus. Nobody ever once tested me for ADHD. As an adult I’ve become convinced that I have ADHD and that it explains a lot about me, about my childhood, about everything. I’ll just add this to the ever-increasing pile. It has its own room now.

[ancestorglade]

This would explain a lot for me too, I can hear the power strip near my bed, the kitchen appliances, etc. People think I’m joking, and nothing has ever been found to be wrong with my hearing and the ear specialist I went to said I don’t have tinnitus. This would explain so much.

[chickenonabicycle]

The experiences you two describe are very common in people with ADHD and/or autism. We don’t filter out sounds like that, while neurotypicals do, so we often hear things they don’t. Electronics are the most common example.

Tinnitus is more a sound that’s always there regardless of where you are or what you’re doing (always the same high pitch is the most common form, though there are other types).

Tinnitus: internal damage to your cochlea, usually from over-exposure to loud sounds, triggering the constant hearing of the pitch that’s connected to the place that’s damaged.

ADHD/autism: sensory sensitivities and the inability to filter the sounds around you, causing you to hear things that others can’t even though they’re real.

For some people, ADHD also has a thing where pure silence has a sound. It’s hard to explain but I call it brain static.

[era-eu]

Bitch!!!!! Nobody told me the brain static was because of my ADHD!!!!! Bro!!! I thought I was going deaf!!!

[onyxmoonstone]

I heard it from my phone once. Freaked me the fuck out.

[jazzybot4]

*That’s why the silence screams* holy shit. Holy *shit*.

[lexrhetoricae]

I've always been able to hear lightning. Not the crack noise, but a harmonic hum. I found out in my 20s that many with fibromyalgia (who also are "hypersensory") also hear this. I was diagnosed with ADD (no H) this summer, and tinnitus. When the Addrrall is active, everything is so damn quiet that I get equally unnerved: when you've heard and felt things unfiltered since childhood and now are 39, the absence of the buzz is both liberating and horrifying. Why is the universe so silent?

[howtomusicmajor]

How to Handle Having TOO MUCH To Do

So let’s say you’re in the same boat I am (this is a running theme, have you noticed?) and you’ve just got, like, SO MUCH STUFF that HAS to get done YESTERDAY or you will DIE (or fail/get fired/mope). Everything needs to be done yesterday, you’re sick, and for whatever reason you are focusing on the least important stuff first. What to do!

Take a deep breath, because this is a boot camp in prioritization.

Make a 3 by 4 grid. Make it pretty big. The line above your top row goes like this: Due YESTERDAY - due TOMORROW - due LATER. Along the side, write: Takes 5 min - Takes 30 min - Takes hours - Takes DAYS.

Divide ALL your tasks into one of these squares, based on how much work you still have to do. A thank you note for a present you received two weeks ago? That takes 5 minutes and was due YESTERDAY. Put it in that square. A five page paper that’s due tomorrow? That takes an hour/hours, place it appropriately. Tomorrow’s speech you just need to rehearse? Half an hour, due TOMORROW. Do the same for ALL of your tasks

Your priority goes like this:

5 minutes due YESTERDAY

5 minutes due TOMORROW

Half-hour due YESTERDAY

Half-hour due TOMORROW

Hours due YESTERDAY

Hours due TOMORROW

5 minutes due LATER

Half-hour due LATER

Hours due LATER

DAYS due YESTERDAY

DAYS due TOMORROW

DAYS due LATER

At this point you just go down the list in each section. If something feels especially urgent, for whatever reason - a certain professor is hounding you, you’re especially worried about that speech, whatever - you can bump that up to the top of the entire list. However, going through the list like this is what I find most efficient.

Some people do like to save the 5 minute tasks for kind of a break between longer-running tasks. If that’s what you want to try, go for it! You’re the one studying here.

So that’s how to prioritize. Now, how to actually do shit? That’s where the 20/10 method comes in. It’s simple: do stuff like a stuff-doing FIEND for 20 minutes, then take a ten minute break and do whatever you want. Repeat ad infinitum. It’s how I’ve gotten through my to do list, concussed and everything.

You’ve got this. Get a drink and start - we can do our stuff together!

[allydsgn]

WOAH THIS SOUNDS HELPFUL. I’M GOING TO TRY THIS IMMEDIATELY. Also, I made a chart for myself, but if anyone else wants it for reference (or if this is wrong and I misread you can tell me) here it is:

[ferrousferrule]

@copperbadge

Seems like it might be useful for organizing and maybe naclyoho?

[copperbadge]

I think there are people who would love to see this, yes! 

I’ve seen this before and not reblogged it but mainly because I personally wouldn’t be able to use this system – I’m bad at estimating how long something will take to do, and I’m also extremely bad at working under a time limit pressure even if it isn’t a limit – if it’s just “This is how long it should take to do this.” 

So in that sense it’s a really good example of what I’m always saying about finding what works For You – this is genius, it’s really a great idea for people who have trouble prioritizing and do well with time pressures, but I couldn’t use it and I doubt I could even adapt it into something usable for me. And that’s okay! Identifying why this wouldn’t help me, that alone helps me to know what would. 

[lexrhetoricae]

A version of this is super helpful if you’re taking a long-ass short answer or short essay final exam in the Humanities (English, Communications, History, Philosophy, Religion, maybe even into the social sciences):

Skim the exam, then sort the questions into four categories with “How fast can I answer this?” and “How many points is this worth?” as the two criteria. Use your gut reaction; don’t try to work out the math, because that wastes time. 

Start with the questions that are ones you can answer quickly and are worth more points.

Then go to the ones that you can answer quickly but are not worth as many points. 

Move on to the ones that will take longer, but are still worth a lot of points.

Then, if you have time, work on the ones that take longer and are worth fewer points.

For some, the “take longer” corresponds to “I don’t remember this well”, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes we profs ask easy questions that have a lot of sub-parts because it’s hard to separate the foundational ideas (stuff you did in weeks 1-3). 

My first “question” on the intro to film exam, for example, is worth 40% of the points, takes students about 50% of the total exam time, and covers weeks 1-6 from the class--but it’s actually really, really easy and nearly everyone passes that section with a B or higher because they *know* it. 

These kinds of exams look terrifying to students because they don’t know where to start or how to prioritize the questions. And then they do poorly on the exams, and it doesn’t reflect what they really learned and it doesn’t show us profs how to adjust our teaching for the next semester. 

Unfortunately, accrediting agencies expect certain kinds of assessments for certain kinds of classes, and if you do something unique, you either have to a) hope no one requests copies of your syllabus for degree audits or b) lie like a dog on the documents and hope the students cover for you.

*ahem* Not that Dr. Lex would ever, ever, do either of those.  Not before tenure anyway....

[clonerightsagenda]

Shoutout to Ed for identifying as agnostic after God ripped two of his limbs off

[theawesomeadventurer]

a total power move

[theawesomeadventurer]

[thatnordicguy]

when your legs don’t work like they used to before

[lexrhetoricae]

It took me two years to learn to swallow pills. I taught myself using spaghetti-o's, which slide down easy. I worked my way up to more solid matter, then, finally, at The Magic Kingdom in Dec 1992, I swallowed an antibiotic before going to Tomorrow Land. Now I can do my nightly set in one swallow. Is this one of those little things I'm supposed to celebrate? #spoonie #dinnerisserved #whyismagnesiumsobig #crohnsdiet https://www.instagram.com/p/B2iPJf0h5nz/?igshid=1h32ot4tdmbyg

[lexrhetoricae]

Liveblogging reactions to The Testaments: 9/13-15

On Twitter: @bverwithbrains My relationship with The Handmaid’s Tale and Atwood is complicated, particularly given my own Scary Fundamentalist(TM) upbringing and the traumas associated therein. Since the 2016 election, I’ve been confronted with a lot of the horrific aspects of my childhood and teenagehood, and I’ve been forced to admit that I experienced “spiritual abuse” that has resulted in “Religious Trauma Syndrome.” 

(Above: something that is far too close to the Saturday Night “worship” time at the youth group’s yearly Winter Retreat)

I study dystopia for a living for a reason: it’s therapy. But THT is really, really hard for me. I’m not a big crier (as people know), but I have sobbed through at least 30% of the Hulu series and had two panic attacks in Season 2. 

I planned to build my academic career around a theory of dystopia-as-the-new-rhetorical-standard-appeal, using a structuralist model of narrative and an affective theory of rhetoric. Atwood’s work since 2008 seems to be directly trying to destroy my theory: My model just doesn’t work for serial narrative. Like. At all.

After I finished the Dissertation From Hell, I vowed to take on what I started to internally call “The Atwood Problem”: Open ended serial dystopian fiction. I had plans. 

But every time I think I can write The Thing, Atwood does something infuriating that makes me restart from scratch. The Testaments is just her latest attempt to destroy my publishing history. 

It’s either that, or I tackle this:

Dystopian hellscape or grading discussion boards? I’ll take the panic attacks, thanks. 

[lexrhetoricae]

My Roomba ate your homework, kids. #professoring #roomba #neverleaveyourroombaalone #missingone https://www.instagram.com/p/B17RbGUhetj/?igshid=131pmxxchhhvp

[lexrhetoricae]

When I explained it, I did reference @scifigrl47‘s Roombaverse. One face twitched in recognition. 

I think I found fandom’s countersign.