Date: Thu, 06 Jun 1996 17:44:51 -0400
To: Athena Discuss 
Subject: Re: Otabil and rhetorical style

Steve Finley wrote:
> 
> Perhaps it is true that we should concentrate only on "content," but
> as the holder of graduate degrees in rhetoric and composition
> (unfortunate though that is with regard to employability), I can tell
> you that there's more going on.  When someone insists on building
> consistently magnificent artifices of pompous obfuscation like Otabil
> does, he/she is saying far more than the denotative meaning (if such
> can be deciphered) of the words employed.  What's really going on is
> a parallel message about competency, erudition, effeteness,
> in-groupism, attempted intimidation--a cloak spun from some
> combination of these qualities and displayed with a flourish.  Any
> style that calls this much attention to itself doesn't deserve to be
> ignored in an attempt to get at the "content."  In this and other
> such cases, the style IS a parallel message, not necessarily
> connected in any way with the purported "content," but also, of
> course, not negating it.

Worthy of Marshall MacLuhan... the medium is the message.
But you say that almost as if you don't understand it.
Style *is* substance.  A slam-dunk is more than a basket,
and a high-five is more than a handshake.  Deal with it!

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