NYMA:
Mother Always Said
Invitational rhetoric provides a space from which we do not have to accept the outside vision of who we are. Because it focuses on our interpretive power to create the world we live in, we can both call to complain and cease complaining. If we issue the invitation to converse in a non-linear style with a juxtaposition of images, text, and sound, and our invitation is ignored, we have have still learned. We have still created. We have still shared.
In some ways, we are merely acknowledging the potential smallness of our audiences when we choose invitational rhetoric. We say back to the universe that we recognize how difficult it is to communicate and that we are hopeful that, instead of resisting efforts of dialogue by focusing on argument, we are inviting it instead.
“When the essay was published, the asterisks were removed and descriptive subheadings were inserted by journal editors to make it conform to house style, to add a linearity and inevitability I did not feel. Unusual for me, I called to complain about these changes. (I later called to apologize for complaining.)” (Wendy Bishop, 2003, p. 574)
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Calling to complain
