Path: ultra.sonic.net!miwok!news1.best.com!news.sgi.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!newsxfer3.itd.umich.edu!howland.erols.net!rill.news.pipex.net!pipex!dispatch.news.demon.net!demon!aristos.demon.co.uk!aristos.demon.co.uk!sam From: Sam Dodsworth Newsgroups: alt.books.cs-lewis Subject: Re: Difficulties with Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1997 00:18:33 +0000 Organization: Annexia Free Press Distribution: world Message-ID: References: <855363811.10832@dejanews.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: aristos.demon.co.uk X-NNTP-Posting-Host: aristos.demon.co.uk MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Newsreader: Turnpike Version 3.01 <7c0azr3XvpMr4dZzpifF$I+pPf> Lines: 37 In article <855363811.10832@dejanews.com>, mary@dragontree.com writes > One technique that becomes second nature (Sam, I guess you've refereed >FRP games where there are certain things the players need to know but are >too dumb to ask?) is to sneak in bits of information whenever one has the >chance. This could account for some of L's roundabout arguments. Perhaps >occasionally he brings in some 'straw man' which is really no threat to >his main point, just to tie in something he wants to talk about. > Maybe, but I think he gives his "straw men" too much prominence for that, and takes too much pleasure in their demise - most of the time, at least. > Another teachers' technique may be kin to Rhetoric (in the old >respectable sense). After explaining something, it's nice to wind up with >a flourish. This is a sort of signal of closure, and a reward/refreshment >to teh listeners, and often also gives them an emotional/colorful handle >for remembering the whole explanation. A metaphor or emotional sort of >epigraph. A good point, but not one that applies to the closely-reasoned bits that I usually end up picking holes in. You could probably read the whole latter half of "Miracles" as exactly that. I'd even be prepared to argue that it's the relaxation that goes with the sense of closure that makes them so much better than what has gone before. > > These are things I can imagine L not even trying refrain from. Lecturer >instinct. He /should/ have checked his adverbials better tho. > Academic instincts, too. There's a real sense of enjoyment when he's taking his (straw) adversaries appart. You may have spotted the same in some of my own posts... Sam Dodsworth (sam@aristos.demon.co.uk) "I think there should be more sex and violence on television, not less. Both are powerful catalysts of social change, at a time when change is desperately needed." -J.G. Ballard