Rhetorical Devices In Chuck Klosterman's 'But What If We' Re Wrong?

793 Words2 Pages

Chuck Klosterman’s But What If We’re Wrong? is a book about examining the present as if we are in the future, examining many universally accepted cultural and even scientific beliefs and explaining how they will probably be thought of as absurd to future generations. The interesting thing is that he doesn’t actually say what these beliefs will become because his entire argument is that we simply do not know. The future is completely unpredictable, and the more reasonable it sounds to our present-day ears, the more likely it is to be a false prediction. He says that when examining our perception of the present day as if we are in the future,
We must start from the premise that−in all likelihood−we are already wrong. And not “wrong” in the sense …show more content…

He interviews people such as George Saunders, Kathryn Schulz, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and several more well-known experts about topics ranging from books to music to the theory of gravity. These interviews give the points Klosterman is making credibility as he jumps from topic to topic. He also cites historical examples of the future being completely unpredictable during the present; for example, the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville went from being a total flop at the time of publishing to being known as the greatest novel of all time. Nothing in Melville’s time indicated the success of that book, and there is no particular reason that the order of events couldn’t have led to another unknown brilliant novel’s success. While citing these historical examples and interviews with great thinkers, Klosterman maintains a conversational, humorous, and engaging tone that keeps the reader wanting more. There were times where I found myself laughing out loud while reading, a very rare occurrence for me. One of my favorite lines in the book was when Klosterman was speaking about how people’s perceptions of presidents change over time. He writes about how the “worst US president of all-time” has changed throughout the years from Grant while he was in college to Buchanan. Along with this,

Show More
Related

  • Under The Snow Rhetorical Analysis

    94 Words  | 1 Pages

    John McPhee used similes throughout his essay “Under the Snow”. One of his similes was him describing how a researcher put the bear in a doughnut shape. It was to explain to the audience that the bear was wrapped around with room between her legs for the bear cubs to lay when they are in hibernation. He describes the movement of the bears and the bear cubs like clowns coming out of a compact car. The similes help the audience see how the moved and how they were placed after the researcher moved them.

    Read More

  • Historical Perspective in the Essays of Susan Griffin, Richard Rodriguez, and Ralph Ellison

    1560 Words  | 4 Pages

    Griffin strikes all of these aspects in her essay. What is most compelling about the essay, however, is the way Griffin incorporated personal, family, and world history into a chilling story of narrative and autobiography, without ever losing the factual evidence the story provided. The chapter reads like an entire novel, which helps the audience to understand the concepts with a clear and complete view of her history, not needing to read any other part of the book. Two other authors, Richard Rodriguez, and Ralph Ellison, who write about their experiences in life can possibly be better understood as historical texts when viewed through the eyes of Griffin. Rodriguez explores his own educational history in his essay “The Achievement of Desire” and Ralph Ellison depicts his own journeys and personal growth in his essay, “An Extravagance of Laughter”. Both essays, which when seen through Susan Griffin’s perspective, can be reopened and examined from a different historical view, perhaps allowing them to be understood with a more lucid view of history and what it is really about.

    Read More

  • Why We Can T Wait Rhetorical Analysis

    850 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout his preface of the book titled Why We Can’t Wait, which entails the unfair social conditions of faultless African Americans, Martin Luther King employs a sympathetic allegory, knowledge of the kids, and a change in tone to prevail the imposed injustice that is deeply rooted in the society—one founded on an “all men are created equal” basis—and to evoke America to take action.

    Read More

  • A Rhetorical Analysis Of Chisholm's Speech

    1043 Words  | 3 Pages

    Not only does repetition play a major role in Chisholm’s speech, but her dispersement of anaphoras indeed calls attention to her main point. Anaphoras allow her to emphasize her frustration and put forth the notion of the severity of discrimination and differences men and women had to endure during that time. An example of this is right in the beginning of her speech where she states: “It provides a legal basis for attack on the most subtle, most pervasive, and most institutionalized form of prejudice that exists,” where she explains how the Constitution was based on the equality of the American people, including between men and women. This quotation fulfills her point by expressing these prejudices in the superlative form. Because she placed

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of George Bush 9/11 Speech

    1047 Words  | 3 Pages

    43rd President of the United States, George Bush, in his speech, “9/11 Address to the Nation” addresses the nation about the day of September 11, 2001. Bush’s purpose is to convey the events of September 11, 2001 and what was and will be done about them. He adopts a serious yet somber tone in order to appeal to the strong and emotional side of the public and to his listeners around the world.

    Read More

  • Influence of Early Lifa and War on Kurt Vonnegut Jr. to Encourage a Generation Against War

    2256 Words  | 5 Pages

    Sutherland, John. "Kurt Vonnegut, Jr." Lives of the Novelists: A History of Fiction in 294 Lives. New Haven: Yale University, 2012. Print.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Obama's Speech

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    President Barack Obama has been a well-known political figure for just over 8 years; he has served two terms as the President of the United States. There has been controversy surrounding the first African American president, after his first term Obama failed to prove to America that he would fix all the things he promised to fix upon election. With his second term he has set in place his views and goals for the country. Obama’s views have been trying to benefit the overall population of American, from the poor all the way to the rich with a few subclasses in-between. During the Inauguration of his second term, won against Mitt Romney. His opponent stood for many things that were conflicting to Obamas platform, while Obama stood for rehabilitating the poor after the recession, Romney wanted to focus on tax breaks for the rich. Throughout the speech given by President Barack Obama, he outlines necessary changes in the system to benefit the people and the need for people to come together as one to have an effective country.

    Read More

  • Movie Analysis: The Singularity

    542 Words  | 2 Pages

    Take for example the prominent futurist Ray Kurzweil. Kurzweil was among the first to anticipate the rise of the internet in the nineties, while most prominent scientists refused to believe that the sparsely connected ancient computers would ever have any true effect on the World. Nowadays we take the internet and its vast source of knowledge for granted, as if it had always existed. Although his prediction for the growth of the internet is impressive, he has made many other predictions, an astounding 70% of so have proved to be true. His latest, and most controversial, is the prediction that “We will successfully reverse-engineer the human brain by the mid-2020s. By the end of that decade, computers will be capable of human-level intelligence. Kurzweil puts the date of the Singularity — never say he's not conservative — at 2045. In that year, he estimates, given the vast increases in computing power and the vast reductions in the cost of same, the quantity of artificial intelligence created will be about a billion times the sum of all the human intelligence that exists today.” (Grossman). Kurzweil came to this prediction based off of exponential graphs he extrapolated out, and to this point in time they’ve been highly accurate. If he’s correct I believe that in the next coming years the scientific discoveries

    Read More

  • Nathaniel Hawthorne: An Author that Influenced and Reshaped our Literature

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    Luebering, J. E, ed. The 100 Most Influential Writers of All Time. New York: Britannica

    Read More

  • Modernism: Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway

    1592 Words  | 4 Pages

    and Other Greats : Lessons from the All-star Writer's Workshop. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006. Print.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Devices Used By Carman

    224 Words  | 1 Pages

    Carman’s brand name: The unique Carmans brand name, distinguishable through cursive font which contrasts with all other simpler typefaces, is used to build ethos and promote persuasion through repeated use which creates familiarity and influences consumer preference. As previously mentioned the rhetorical device of repetition or repeated uses of elements reinforces messages or visuals in the mind of the viewer[3]. Therefore, repeated use Carman’s brand name on each side of the box familiarises the consumer with the brand in the same way, making it memorable. According to an article in the Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, brand familiarity is effective as the more familiar a person is with a brand the greater the influence of buying

    Read More

  • Utopia And Dystopian Novel

    1817 Words  | 4 Pages

    Future has always intrigued people; we have always wanted to find out what future will

    Read More

  • Alan Moore: The Father of Comic Books

    1301 Words  | 3 Pages

    Khoury, G. (1995-2003). The Supreme Writer: Alan Moore. Retrieved February 18, 2010, from twomorrows.com: http://www.twomorrows.com/kirby/articles/30moore.html

    Read More

  • The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

    1504 Words  | 4 Pages

    During the late Victorian Britain, H.G. Wells became a literary spokesperson for liberal optimism and social reform. His scientific knowledge and literary capabilities led him to be one of the fore fathers of modern science fiction. In his novel The Time Machine, Wells, knowledgeable on the teachings of Charles Darwin and those of the Fabian Society, attempts to warn society that the brutality of capitalism and the plight of the laborer are not dealt with through social reforms then humanity will drive itself to extinction.

    Read More

  • Essay On Common Sense

    1015 Words  | 3 Pages

    As of there is some of our common sense ideas have been backed up with our research evidence, but some of them haven’t. (Schooler, 2015) There are few factors in one topic where we will touch and talk about in this paper. The first factor will be hindsight bias, errors in judging the future’s foreseeability and in remembering our past combine. (Myers, 2012) Second factor will focus on how can we reduce the hindsight based on our sense that our common sense is always right but they aren’t. The lastly but not least factor will explain about my experience and real life

    Read More

More about Rhetorical Devices In Chuck Klosterman's 'But What If We' Re Wrong?

Open Document