Rhetoric - What's up?

Those of you, that speak with me would know that I love exploring rhetoric. I also have a very keen and critical eye and love close reading when I'm reading. What close reading is, is looking at the article that you have much more critically, and really trying to extract as much information out of every word. You can then try making connections, sounding smart, or whatever. I just think it is fun and interesting to close read and find out what really is or may be going on within the text and how it transcends the text, to you. 

Now you may call me a nerd here, an English nerd, whatever, and I would like to say you are probably absolutely right. I would always, 100% advocate that we all try to be as nerdy as possible. We'd just be much smarter people if we were. I'm going to stop here because I'm digressing from what I want to blog about.

Just at the start of last week, as I went back to university, I was very excited about one of the courses I was taking. I'm sure you wouldn't be surprised to know that it is all about being critical while reading. Our first class, we pretty much opened the floor to hear definitions of what being critical is, and what I personally think, is that being critical is about looking at something much more deeply. It's about really getting down to the nitty gritty and in essence finding out about...everything you could possibly want to know of value. 

Now I touched a bit on being critical while reading, and this is all cool and dandy and I'll probably rattle off some of my own observations and examples (which people think I'm crazy for) but what I wanted to key in on a bit more was the application of being critical. Not with writing, but with everyday life and language, specifically with regards to speech and conversations.

We all love to talk in some way or another and we all have many many many conversations. How we all speak is different and varies. I could probably write a very very large anthology on all types of rhetoric and speech epitomes of all languages and all, but obviously I won't because I'm not that bored. But I will however try to show you a little bit of what I think with regards to us communicating with each other and the merits of understanding each others rhetoric and language, and how tuning your own rhetoric, can be quite amazing.

Now what is rhetoric? I use the word a lot, and if you study writing, politics or law, you'll definitely come across this word; if you don't, there is a problem. We all use rhetoric, subconsciously and even consciously. In fact the most popular type of speech is a form of rhetoric.

Rhetoric is the art of persuasive language. Doesn't mean you have to be arguing or even proving something to use rhetoric, it just means you're probably trying to get somewhere in your conversation or at least guide it a little. Today, sarcasm is used a lot, because people love it. We all love to joke around or pass comments using sarcasm, and this is a form of rhetoric too.

For instance, I was having a conversation once, and I cannot remember exactly what was being said so I'll fabricate it a little...here is the a little of the 'conversation':

'You're crazy.'

'Rude.'

'Gosh, I wish I was crazy...crazy is cool.'

'You are crazy.'

'Don't lie to me.'

'Lie to you? Never.'

Now if you take a look at that small conversation, you would probably notice some sarcasm in it. You would probably also wonder, 'Why would I want to critically look at that?' and that is a legitimate question, because you probably wouldn't. I just happen to have lots of time and no life.

Anyways, if you take a look at the line saying 'Gosh...I wish I was crazy...crazy is cool.' it is the first hint of intentional sarcasm, on my part anyways. It's a little ironic (to me) because I meant it literally, not entirely seriously...anyways...bad example. Looking at the second example, which is probably the better one, it is the line saying 'Lie to you? Never.'

Take it in for a minute....interesting...isn't it? No? Let me try convincing you then. I hope the sarcasm is blatantly obvious, as it is clearly there. The 'Lie to you' part is obviously setting up the end 'Never'. The kicker of this sarcasm is really the 'Never' and what this basically shows is the acknowledgement that, lies are going to happen, but probably not seriously. It's a clear playful joke. Shows a level of ingenuity however also a a sense of realism.

Yeah I think a lot...

It's not just that that interests me though; after having that little epiphany with regards to sarcasm and looking specifically at the word 'Never', I started thinking more of conversations, and more particularly at word usage. I've actually been pondering this for quite some time, and if you have conversations with me from time to time, you would know that sometimes I innocently ask 'What does that mean?' or I'll question your answer...because I think very critically...almost always...and am not very hip.

What I do think is hip though is being able to read into things like this and really understand what is going on. Seriously, makes you look like a genius, mind reader, smart...it's cool...trust me (and if you don't, I'll probably blog about it later anyways).

What I figured I would do is every now and then write a new blog on a new word or phrase or whatever which I find interesting or serves as some type of median to learn something. Since I've gone on so long already, I'll keep this coming one short, and hopefully grab your attention so that you read future blogs (that will probably look at cliches, particular words, catch phrases, movies, Beauty and the Beast, Hollywood, sports, almost everything. Rhetoric is everywhere.

Today I'll keep it quite simple. Quite often when we see or greet someone, the second thing we usually say (after Hi/Hello/Salutation) is 'What's up'. Almost always, the response is 'nothing' and then it's your turn to regurgitate the same thing and then perhaps start your actual conversation. This strikes me as confusing. Why not start the conversation after the initial 'what's up'. Even if it's a random, useless conversation, you could reply to a 'what's up' with, 'I feel quite silly' or something...I don't know..just weird to me.

So I ask you, what do you actually mean when you say 'What's up'? Do you expect an honest response back? If someone asks you 'What's up', are you going to tell them what is actually up? Is this sarcasm? Have we destroyed using the term 'What's up?' Is it now just a quick, mundane formality that transitions us to the main event?

Yes. I think too much.