Every person who writes and shares their writing with others is selling a point of view, so in that sense, every blogger/author/social media poster is well-versed in rhetoric. Rhetoric isn’t new. It’s been around since before the written word, when prehistoric humans sat around fires and told stories. I wonder if hieroglyphs on cave walls contained rhetoric? Hey, isn’t that a rhetorical question?
In the electronic age, we are inundated with rhetoric. I feel like I’m drowning in it. Where are the islands to rest in this swarming sea? I would say graphical art is one place, even though much of it springs from the politics of the artist. Poetry can also be very political. Nature is respite when a subject of any creative expression. Do you think that nature art/writing/poetry can contain rhetoric? I think it is more than a rhetorical question. The answer is a resounding yes. An acrylic painting of a pig confined in a birthing crate is rhetorical art. A poem from the perspective of an immigrant child in a cage is rhetorical poetry. These expressions don’t have to come right out and say what their message is, but the messages are powerfully clear.
Reena Saxena is the host of Reena’s Exploration Challenge. Reena says:
The theme this week is:
RHETORICAL QUESTION
Use the words in your piece, allude to it in some way, or include the figure of speech in your writing. Have a ball! Can writers write? As usual, there is no restriction on length or format of the piece.
Tao Talk 
It looks like those two pigs love each other.
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Yes, they do. Animals care for each other just as much and often probably more than humans do for each other, which is why it is monstrous the things we do to them in factory farms. If humans feel compelled to eat the flesh of other creatures, the animals should be treated humanely. Without exception. Did you know they have enacted laws that prohibit pictures, videos, etc. of what’s going on in factory farms now? There is inherent evil afoot in our world. I pray we can extricate ourselves from this descent to hell.
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Nature…yes it can be rhetoric and it’s pure and true…good and bad.
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Reblogged this on Cage Dunn: Writer, Author, Teller-of-tall-tales and commented:
The rhetoric of selling a perspective …
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Thanks for reblogging, Cage.
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As long as the message delivered is clear, it doesn’t matter if the question is rhetorical.
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True!
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👍
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Art gets embroiled in politics and invites the ire of Power so often. Politics is about power, and artists are rebels in their thought-processes. They cannot curtail expression like a diplomat or civil servant does.
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So true, Reena. Good point. It’s almost a mandate that they not curtail as much as it is for a diplomat or civil servant to curtail.
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Reblogged this on Reena Saxena and commented:
teaching through…. by Jade Li/Lisa. Don’t miss the haunting image, when you focus on insightful words.
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Yes to all of that (rhetorical you) :)
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:)
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