Enargia:
Definition: A general term referring to the “energy” or vigor of an expression, or a clear, lucid, vivid description.
Explanation
A lot of poets use this rhetorical device; it is when the author describes someone or something in great detail. When they describe the object, they describe it so well that the reader can almost see what they are describing; they get a vivid and clear picture of what the author is describing. The poet Edgar Allan Poe used Enargia a lot in his poems, some would say even too much because he would describe everything to clear detail, everything he described you could picture.
Examples
1- A kickball, a round red rubber ball of joy. About the size of a small dog, it is checkered and covered in dirt. Rugged in feel, it is launched across the field toward an oncoming foot. Elastic and rubber like in feel, it bounces with ease across the field avoiding the oncoming players as the gather around it.
2- At a first glance it looked gloomy and dark. With red rugged bricks, and vivid green window panes, it wasn’t a new house but the owners were trying. The door was large and green, cracked down the side as if it was struck repeatedly. It wasn’t a very large house, but big enough for a family to live comfortable. It hade an almost cone shaped roof with torn shingles, and vines creeping all along the sides, twisting and weaving till they touched and covered the ground.
Example from the public
Author and editor Charles Frederick Briggs describes Poe in even greater detail and in a vein of animosity:
Mr. Poe is about 39.... In height he is about 5 feet 1 or two inches, perhaps 2 inches and a half [actually 5 ft. 8 in.]. His face is pale and rather thin; eyes gray, watery, and always dull; nose rather prominent, pointed and sharp; nostrils wide; hair thin and cropped short; mouth not very well chiselled, nor very sweet; his tongue shows itself unpleasantly when he speaks earnestly, and seems too large for his mouth; teeth indifferent; forehead rather broad, and in the region of ideality [above the temples where Poe had a large protuberance on each side of his head] decidedly large, but low, and in that part where phrenology places conscientiousness and the group of moral sentiments [the top of the head] it is quite flat; chin narrow and pointed, which gives his head, upon the whole, a balloonish appearance....
(Thomas 643; see also 693)
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Bandwagon
Fallacy: Bandwagon
Latin name: Argumentum ad Populum
Other names: Appeal to Popularity, Argument by Consensus, Authority of the Many
Description:
“(logic) A fallacious argument that concludes a proposition to be true because many or all people believe it; it alleges that" If many believe so, it is so."
If something were to be popular, even if it was wrong others would believe it, or go with it because other people are.
Format:
Idea I is popular.
Therefore, I is correct.
Example 1
Jake hates soup, it tastes bad to him. Everyone around him likes soup, they are all eating it. Jake begins to eat soup because everyone else is.
Example 2
Karl knows that the capital of Canada is Ottawa. His group of friends all say that the capital of Canada is Toronto. Karl now says that the capital of Canada is Toronto, even though it isn’t right.
Example 3
In the media:
Online dating: Everyone’s doing it
A dot-com business that actually makes a profit
By Bob Sullivan
Technology correspondent
MSNBC
Sept. 19, 2002 - Selling love over the Internet seems like the perfect business model. Virtually all your content is donated for free. Your customers are motivated by the strongest urges mother nature can conjure up. And they think $20 a month is cheap compared to the price of a drink at a singles’ bar. Until recently, there had been a catch — the weird factor. But that’s a distant memory now, since it seems everyone’s doing it. Virtual matchmaking has become the Internet’s third killer app, behind e-mail and the Web. Can the “mad growth,” and genuine profits, continue?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3078729/
Sources:
1- Wiktionary, "argumentum ad populum." argumentum ad populum. 26 August 2006. Wiktionary. 2 Nov 2008 en.wiktionary.org/wiki/argumentum_ad_populum
Latin name: Argumentum ad Populum
Other names: Appeal to Popularity, Argument by Consensus, Authority of the Many
Description:
“(logic) A fallacious argument that concludes a proposition to be true because many or all people believe it; it alleges that" If many believe so, it is so."
If something were to be popular, even if it was wrong others would believe it, or go with it because other people are.
Format:
Idea I is popular.
Therefore, I is correct.
Example 1
Jake hates soup, it tastes bad to him. Everyone around him likes soup, they are all eating it. Jake begins to eat soup because everyone else is.
Example 2
Karl knows that the capital of Canada is Ottawa. His group of friends all say that the capital of Canada is Toronto. Karl now says that the capital of Canada is Toronto, even though it isn’t right.
Example 3
In the media:
Online dating: Everyone’s doing it
A dot-com business that actually makes a profit
By Bob Sullivan
Technology correspondent
MSNBC
Sept. 19, 2002 - Selling love over the Internet seems like the perfect business model. Virtually all your content is donated for free. Your customers are motivated by the strongest urges mother nature can conjure up. And they think $20 a month is cheap compared to the price of a drink at a singles’ bar. Until recently, there had been a catch — the weird factor. But that’s a distant memory now, since it seems everyone’s doing it. Virtual matchmaking has become the Internet’s third killer app, behind e-mail and the Web. Can the “mad growth,” and genuine profits, continue?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3078729/
Sources:
1- Wiktionary, "argumentum ad populum." argumentum ad populum. 26 August 2006. Wiktionary. 2 Nov 2008 en.wiktionary.org/wiki/argumentum_ad_populum
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