For Week Three, read "White," "Red," and "Orange" in Victoria Finlay's Color.
The nine rhetorical modes are methods of presenting and structuring information. For writers, managing these rhetorical modes ensures that both individual paragraphs and the essay as a whole are focused and coherent. Here are the rhetorical modes in no particular order . . .
Description: this refers both to literal description (based on sensory imagery) and figurative description (based on association). Thus, a description could provide visual details (literal description) and a simile (figurative description) in order to depict an object, idea, or scene.
Definition: elaborating the essential qualities of a thing. For example, if I were to define "dog," I couldn't just say a "four-legged animal" since that would include cats and would exclude a dog that might be missing a leg. Thus, writing an effective definition requires in-depth critical analysis.
Exemplification: providing examples to illustrate or "exemplify" a concept.
Cause/Effect: describing the causes or effects. In practice, a writer could do either or both: in other words, a writer could focus on the causes of an event, the effects of an event, or both the causes and effects of an event.
Division/Classification: breaking a concept down into categories (division) and then providing labels for each category (classification). For example, a writer could discuss types of music (genres) and define the essential qualities of each genre.
Compare/Contrast: analyzing the similarities and differences between two topics.
Argument: making a claim and then supporting that claim with reasons and evidence.
Narration: telling a story in order to illustrate a point.
Process Analysis: detailing the steps involved in a process. For example, a writer could discuss how to do something, or a writer could detail the steps leading up to a historical event.
There are two disclaimers:
1. An essay does not need to use all nine rhetorical modes to be effective.
2. These rhetorical modes work in conjunction with each other. An effective definition may also describe and divide/classify.
For this post, find sections where Finlay uses description, definition, and exemplification effectively. In other words, where does Finlay effectively describe something? Where does she provide a memorable definition? Where does she provide enlightening examples of something? Provide a quote for each of these three rhetorical modes from the text, and explain (in a sentence for each of these three rhetorical modes) what makes Finlay's use of that mode effective.
"In 1575 alone about 80 metric tons or red arrived in Spain in the form of dried brown pellets, on what became known as the cochineal. (Finlay 149)" In this quote in "Red", Finaly effectively uses description because she describes the color of the pellets and what exactly was arriving in Spain and how much.
ReplyDeleteIn the story "Orange" the quote "Safflower is unusual: if you add alkalis to the dye broth it is yellow; with acids it goes beautiful crimson pink which is the color of the original 'red' tape once tied around legal documents in England and now gives its name to any bureaucratic knotty procedures (Finaly 176)" uses definition because it vividly described the colors of the safflower and how if you add different chemicals that it can turn different shades.
"In Western culture a woman wearing white so often represents purity this it is easy to imagine the paint itself having the squeaky-clean reputation as well (Finlay 108)."When Finaly stated this in "White", she used the rhetorical mode of exemplification. This is because she described an example of what a woman wearing white represented in a Western culture
Finlay uses description effectively on page 137. “It is a deep, intensely colored organic red, but it will never be used for Buddhist robes because there is too much death in it. I chose this one because when i thinks of Buddhist ,i think of very subtle, very humbles. A deep red would be too loud to wear for church. When i think of intensely red, i think of a highlighter red that would blind you or would stand out in a crowd.
ReplyDeleteFinlay uses Definition effectively on page 176. “Safflower is unusual: if you add alkalis tote dye broth it is yellow; with acids it goes a beautiful crimson pink which is the color of the original “red” tape once tied around legal documents in England and now ives its name to any bureaucratic knotty procedures”. i chose this quote for a definition because when you think of brother, it is yellowish/brownish and he was very specific about the color. When you think of crimson, a lot of people think of a red and burgundy mix but he made sure we knew it was more of a pink which is very creative and is a color i would love to see.
Finlay uses exemplification in the book “color” effectively on page 108, describing the painting and the representation of the color white. “ In Western culture a woman wearing white so often represents purity it is easy to imagine the paint itself having that squeaky-clean reputation as well. But in China and Japan the color represents death and sickness in general and funerals in particular..”. This is a great use of exemplification because he gives us examples of white white represents in different colors. I found it interesting because the color white represents the total opposite of each other in different cultures.
Exemplification
ReplyDeleteFinlay uses exemplification when discussing about the color white on page 108. Finlay states, "But in China and Japan the color represents death and sickness in general and funerals in particular- and for some white paint at least this is a more appropriate way to think about the color." Finlay uses exemplification effectively by providing examples of what this color (white) means in other areas of the world. She is able to exemplify the color white in other terms that are different from other people’s perspective on the color white.
Description
Finlay uses description when describing the various meanings to the color red on page 142. She states, "In our modern language of metaphors, red is anger, it is fire, it is the stormy feelings of the heart, it is love, it is color coders understood very well." Finlay refers to the color in multiple manners giving it various meanings and feelings as well. She also makes its meanings so deep and sensory like. She describes the color red in a very successful manner with visual details.
Definition
Finlay uses definition when she states, "For buyers of colors, safflower is a dye to be careful of too, especially if you are not looking at it. This plant has been switched so often for another more expensive yellow dye that one of its names is "bastard saffron." Page 177. She is defining the dye safflower and how it continually keeps changing that way it includes all of its properties and does not exclude pervious dyes in the same category of safflower.
Exemplification is used when Finlay states, "Today in England and Wales, lead white paint is only allowed on Grades I and II star listed houses - and even then it can only be on the outside." (pg.124) In this sentence he is exemplifying how the color white is used in those areas.
ReplyDeleteFinlay uses definition when she states, "In the 1760s there was tremendous excitement about a substance called "megilp", which was a combination of mastic and linseed oil." (pg. 182) This sentence successfully gives a definition of what megilp is by saying what it's made up.
Finlay uses description when he states, "They could macerate the wood of the brazil tree to make a deep pink, they could make an orange dye with the dried seeds of the annatto plant, and of course there was logwood, which I found in my search for black, and was actually better black than red." (pg.143). This sentence successfully describes how the use of objects can create a color. This allows us to better visualize how it's being made.
“In the 1870s the cosmetics company George W. Laird ran a series of cartoon-style advertisements in fashionable New York magazines” (Finlay, 123). In this quote in ‘White,’ Finlay effectively uses description because she describes the advertisements and the magazine.
ReplyDelete“From the sunny side of the hill it looked as if it had been snowing in the desert – everything was clouded in white flour” (Finlay, 153). In this quote in ‘Red,’ Finlay effectively uses definition because she elaborates on what part of the hill was sunny and how the desert looked.
“But as the three little ships, the Santa Maria, the Nina and the Pinta, pulled out of the harbor of the Palos they had to steer carefully to avoid several small boats bobbing in the water, full of frightened men, women, and children” (Finlay, 187). I chose this quote in ‘Orange’ because Finlay provides exemplification and illustrates of the names of the ships and who were in the boats.
Heriberto Pina
ReplyDeleteIn the Story “White” the quote “ Dunhuang today is a remote town in Gansu province, and hour’s flight and about 1,800 kilometers by camel from the start of the silk Road in Xian. (pg. 114) “ Finlay use adequate description because she describes the distance it would take to get to the place to the other and how that has changed.
“Combined, the silver elephant and the yellow fire-breathing reptile miraculously make something that is blood red. (pg. 163)” Finlay uses exemplification effectively in “Red” because it provides examples on how to obtain its color cinnabar.
“Most artists today would be bewildered to find madder in a chapter entitled “orange”: for painters, it tends to signify bright pink paint. (pg. 185)” Finlay Sates in “Orange” and defines how artists would interpret it.
Michael Ballard
ReplyDelete2/11/17
White, red, orange
“Whiter shades of pale” pg 120
Rutherford Gettens, chief chemist at the Fogg Museum when Warner’s Stolen Bodhisattva arrived, called lead white “The most important pigment in the history of Western painting” and was thrilled to find it lying “thickly” on the precious sculpture. He was grateful to it- as many art historians are grateful because x-radiography of old paintings depends on the artist’s generous use of lead. X-ray are electromagnetic, just like light except they have a much smaller frequency than light and so can pass through more objects. lead, however, is dense, so it shows up in x-radiographs much more than, say, ochre. So, for example, in The Death of Actaeon by the sixteenth-century Venetian artist Titian the painting shows Diana getting her terrible revenge on a hunter whom she has caught spying on her while she is naked. She transforms Actaeon into a stag, at which point the hunter becomes the hunted. With the benefit of x-radiography we can see that Titian had some problems with the poor hunter. In trying to portray the critical moment of the man changing form, the artist himself made many changes to the form of his painting, and there is a swirl of painting and overpainting in white lead over Actaeon’s are of the canvas, which presumably only stopped when Titian was satisfied with the effect of a no doubt extremely penitent peeping tom being mauled by his own dogs.
Being an art collector, without a lot of inside education into the processes artist take, I found this to be a very relatable description of how x-radiography is used to explore paintings. This is due to Finlay’s use of factual knowledge and know examples of process making the overall process of x-radiography easier to understand to the lay person.
“The Plantation”
Prickly pear or “nopal” as the Spaniard call it, is easy to grow in the right conditions -25 degrees Centigrade, little rain- but it is temperamental. Two degrees more or less and it dies. The leaves propagate without human interference: they fall off natural and their tiny prickles turn into roots. The nopal even waters itself. Th wide surface of the leaf is its own water bowl- it draws the dew in the night, and drinks it during the day. If they are left tot here own devices the insects will kill the plant: it is the farm managers job to strink balance between letting the cochineals grow to their maximum size and keeping the cactuses alive.
Ms. Finlay give prime example of what a definition should be. Not only does she include many critical aspect of the prickly pear in her writing, but she also includes how to care for the plant. This added information gives the reader a much more vivid image of the item being defined, it is through the added habitual information that the reader is able to imagine to prickly pear cactus.
“Bastard Saffron and The Blood of Dragons”
Safflower is unusual: if you add alkalis to the dye broth it is yellow; with acids, it goes a beautiful crimson pink which is the color of the original “red” tape once tied around legal documents in England and now give its name to any bureaucratic knotty procedures. It would have been known to the busy traders in the north African bazars for more generations than anyone could count: Ancient Egyptians used it to dye mummy wrappings and to turn their ceremonial ointments an oily orange. They valued it so much that they put garlands of safflowers entwined with yellow leaves in their relative’s tombs, to comfort them after death.
I did not know what this color was, with Ms. Finlay examples of the unusualness of this color I was able to relate to other knowledge, archeological, to acknowledge the color as one I knew but one I was unfamiliar with.
"There was the famous Venetian turpentine from larches... and even more exciting would have been the expensive amber from the north -- thirty-million-year-old pieces of resin that bubbled up from the bed of the Baltic and in their time caused as much grief to the residents of that seashore as mastic had caused to the people of Chios. (Finlay 190)" Finlay's use of description here is effective because she provides the readers with visual details that "the expensive amber from the north -- thirty-million-year-old pieces of resin that bubbled up from the bed of the Baltic" and a simile that the bubbling amber rising from the bed of the Baltic "caused as much grief to the residents of that seashore as mastic had caused to the people of Chios" which depicts an idea and scene of amber's distress upon the people.
ReplyDelete"The disadvantages were that chalk whites look very transparent -- anemic even -- in oils, and don't have the texture and shine of lead. (Finlay 122)" Finlay's use of definition here is effective because she describes an in-depth critical analysis of chalk whites ("look very transparent -- anemic even -- in oils) compared to lead (which has "texture and shine").
"In the past, this paint [lead white paint] was chosen because it was long lasting; the cheaper lime whites had to be repainted every year (Finlay 124-125)." Finlay's use of exemplification here is effective because she further provides examples to illustrate or "exemplify" why lead white paint was desirable than other choices of white paint.
Description:
ReplyDeleteFinlay uses description effectively when she states, “Even before Ferdinand and Isabella had issued their proclamation that god wanted Spain for Catholics only, there had been terrible violence against Jews burning, brutality and at the very least confiscation of property” in the chapter Orange (p.169). She illustrates the horrible treatment of Jews in Spain that lead to large migration before the proclamation.
Definition:
In the chapter Red Finlay provides a memorable definition when she wrote, “We sat in an empty restaurant drinking cold percolated coffee as Alan drew pictures of the cochineal bug on a notepad: an oval cartoon insect the size of a little fingernail, with tiny wavy legs and a big body bursting with potential” (p.137). In this sentence she uses the mode by defining what a cochineal beetle is to the reader.
Exemplification:
Finlay uses the mode exemplification in the chapter red when she states, “In our modern language of metaphors, red is anger, it is fire, it is the stormy feelings of the heart, it is love, it is the god of war, and it is power” (p.142). In this sentence she provides several examples of what red represents in current language.
Description:
ReplyDelete"In his time the best quality of lead white came from Rhodes, and he described how it was made. Workers would put shavings of thin lead over a bowl filled with vinegar. The action of the acid on the thin metal would cause a chemical reaction and leave white deposits of lead carbonate. the lead-workers of Rhodes then powdered it, flattened it into little cakes and left it to dry in the summer sun."(page109)
Finlay was able to describe the process of how lead white was made in a step by step process that gave me a clear picture of the recipe.
Defintion:
"Perhaps he would have been disappointed to hear eventually that it was simply the sap of a special 'dragons blood' tree, so called because the resin is so dark it must surely be reptilian." (pg 178)
Finlays definition for "dragons blood tree" is a vivid image of a brown green resin; or at least I believe it would be a brown green because of how she defined it.
Exemplification:
"If I had assiduously applied Bloom of Youth every morning, I would first feel a sense of lethargy; I'd probably blame it on those wretched corsets. I would then, perhaps, stop sleeping, which would give a pallid hollow to my cheeks. My Victorian suitors might even find this an attractive look, fitting the idea of what woman should be like: 'dead-pale,' but with a lovely face, a Lady of Shalott. And then my legs might begin to feel wobbly, so i might take to my bed, like the consumptive heroine of a Puccini opera."(pg 113)
This detailed example of what it would feel like to use this brand of make up is the most descriptive in its experience. Makes a reader feel for those women.
In the chapter "White" Finlay writes about another story, named "The Story of Skeletons". Finlay is describing how another author in a different book had seen certain things inside caves. The quote is, "The exteriors have been squared up and covered with a pebble-dashed façade, each grotto accessed by a metal hotel-style door, with a room number outside. Finlay uses enough detail and description that within the text a mental picture automatically appears.
ReplyDeleteIn the chapter "Red" Finlay does use definition, however it is in ways that are not quite direct. However in the quote, "That's the first infestation: the pregnancy", Finlay is not directly saying that there is a pregnant women or animal, yet she is speaking about the plantation and what was planted. She used "infestation" and "pregnancy" to explain how the prickly pears were everywhere and spread out all across the field.
In the chapter "Orange", on page 185, Finlay is speaking about artists and the mixture of color. A sentence from the story says, "But if dyers put white wool in a madder dye bath, with a little bit of alum to make the color stick, then it comes out the vibrant shade of a redhead's hair". Finlay uses exemplification to say that as an example of what color the wool turns into when mixed with alum.
ReplyDeleteDefinition: Finlay uses the rhetorical mode of definition in the chapter about White on p.126. Finlay defines the Farrow & Ball paint color “Dead Salmon”. “As for the name “Dead Salmon”, the name has nothing to do with death at all.” “It just means a dead flat finish”. Finlay’s definition for “Dead Salmon” effectively defines a paint color that readers may otherwise assume is a brownish or a dirty pink color when in actuality “Dead Salmon” is simply a muted pink.
Description: Finlay uses figurative description when describing the color red on p.142. “For many cultures red is both death and life-a beautiful and terrible paradox. In our modern language of metaphors, red is anger, it is fire, it is the stormy feelings of the heart, it is love, it is the god of war, and it is power.” Finlay’s description enables the reader to understand what language is associated with the word red. This figurative description also allows the reader to connect the description of red such as “death and life” to the literal creation of carmine red-the blood of insects.
Exemplification: Finlay uses exemplification in the chapter Orange, when discussing the substance megilp and its degradation over time. Finlay uses Joshua Reynold’s artwork to give an example of the degradation of meglip in a painting. “Nearby is another prime example of the degradation of meglip in Reynold’s work. A Girl with a Baby is thought to be the portrait of the future lady Hamilton with her first child.” “It has, by an interesting irony, degraded disastrously into something that looks like a strikingly modern porto-renoir”.
Description: “In cave 428 there were pictures of enlightened beings who looked like joke skeletons in reverse. Their crudely daubed black bones, limbs and bellies contrasted curiously with the delicate folds of their headwear and robes – it looked as if a primary school student had helped with the artwork.” (Page 116, White)
ReplyDeleteThis is a description that uses descriptive words as well as similes to describe the way the artwork in the caves looked. What makes this description so effective is the way that the author related the drawings to the drawings of children. Using descriptive phrases such as “contrasted curiously” lets the reader understand the author’s confusion and disappointment in the paintings.
Definition: “Because the secret of Turkey Red was not a nice one at all for the neighbors. It involved applying alum, tin, calcium, tannin, ox blood and – most unpleasantly – sheep or cow dung to yarn that had been steeped in rancid castor oil. After the three weeks or more of going through one of the most complicated dyeing processes ever invented, the cloth and the dye works emitted a very peculiar stench indeed.” (Page 188, Orange)
This is a good example of definition because it shows in depth detail about the process of dyeing the cloth and why the use of the bandannas didn’t last very long. In order to understand why the handkerchief market diminished so quickly, the reader needs to understand that the process of dyeing the handkerchiefs was not pleasant nor efficient. The author uses descriptive language to define the smell and the process of the handkerchief dyeing leading the reader to a better understanding of the process.
Exemplification: “Today there is a desire among some artists to rediscover the methods of the past – hence the interest in Stradivari’s orange varnish. But this search for something “authentic” is nothing new; art history is so full of nostalgia that to some extent it has been shaped by it. The search for lost knowledge has been a driving force in many art movements. The Victorians created neo-Gothic, but the creators of what was called Gothic were simply harking back to an imagined time in the Dark Ages. Even Roman style was neo-Greek.” (Page 175, Orange)
This a good example of exemplification because the author uses the examples of “neo-Gothic” and “neo-Greek” to explain how history has been helping create art. The idea that the neo-Gothic style developed from the Gothic style that was developed from the style of the dark ages paints a broad picture of how different forms of art over time help develop the next forms of art in the future.
Description: “I looked around and suddenly he was there. With his keen eyes, charisma and jaunty panama hat, he looked like an adventurer. Finlay uses the rhetorical mode description effectively by describing how the guy looked. Instead of saying “he looked like an adventurer,” he described the appearance/characteristics that make someone an adventurer. The description builds an effective visualization for the reader.
ReplyDeleteDefinition: “Scriabin was synaesthetic, which meant his brain made connections between things that the majority of people do not believe to be fundamentally connected.” (pg. 196) Finlay uses a definition effectively by defining a word that most people would not know. It helps the reader understand the context of why Scriabin can make connections between things.
Exemplification: “In the sixteenth century there was famously a choice of two punishments for prisoners: the galleys or Almaden.” (pg.164) Finlay’s example makes it effective because Finlay is describing what each punishment consists and the harsh conditions of each punishment.
" He scooped a tiny white creature - big as a bedbug- and put it on my hand. Squeeze he said, and i squeezed, and for a moment the creature's hard body resisted, and then it popped like a piece of bubble wrap, leaving leaving a thick dark scarlet stain on my palm." In this quote from "Red" Finlay uses decspription in this quote because Finlay is describing the little bug to be bigger than expected and describing it to a piece of bubble wrap when it pops.
ReplyDelete"Every color and knot meant something different. So black string represented time, yellow was gold, and blue referred to the sky and- by extension- the gods." This quote represents definition because it is identifying which colors belong which and what each identify.
" In Western culture a woman wearing white so often represents purity that is easy to imagine the paint itself having that squeaky -clean reputation as well." Finlay represents exemplification because she provides examples how the color white identifies cleaness and innocence.
Definition: “In our modern language of metaphors, red is anger, it is fire, it is the stormy feelings of the heart, it is love, it is the god of war, and it is power” (Red, pg.254). In this quote, Finaly uses definition by telling you the different meanings that the color red holds. Finaly elaborates more on the meaning of red rather than just being a color.
ReplyDeleteExemplification: “Today too, women die for beauty: they starve themselves too thin, or emply surgeons to tuck their skin too tightly” (White, pg.203). In this quote, Finaly effectively used exemplification by providing examples of the ways women in present day die all in the name of beauty.
Description: “In those three months the stagnant heat, gurgling excrement, sour wine and poisonous metal would have worked their alchemical magic, the dirt and the smell metamorphosing into the purest and cleanest white, which formed in flakes or scales on the gray metal” (White, pg. 201). Finaly explanation of the Dutch process in making of the color white uses description effectively in this quote by providing a vivid description. The words Finaly used almost makes you feel like your there watching this process unfold.
In the chapter "Red," Finley describes a small town famous for its mercury mine Almaden, and gave her first visual impression of it.
ReplyDelete"Almaden is surrounded by curiously shaped hills, filled with shiny mica... with the picturesque sixteenth-century church ruins framing the contemporary rusting machinery."
Finlay paints a great picture of the small town, with its surrounding mixed with the cultural and economic influences it has had.
Finlay, in her chapter "Orange," provides an example of why the character being focused on, chose the dragon's blood resin over other types of binders for his lute making.
"Gums and resins come from trees-but gums turn to jelly when they are mixed with water, while resins only dissolve in oils, alcohol and the spirit of turpentine."
This explanation, clearly states why the lute maker would choose this agent, as oppose to others, due to the fact that it would not dissolve when exposed to water.
Finlay goes on to define what "megilp" is and what it does.
"...a substantial called ''megilp,' which was a combination of mastic and linseed oil. It made a beautiful butter varnish... and gave an instant mellow gold quality to the painting."
She quickly and clearly defines what megilp is, it's essential use, and the reason why it would be specifically used on certain paintings.
For description I chose a few sentences from "Red". "But had he lived a few centuries earlier he would have used something called "carmine," which came from an Old World Bug, as long as but thinner that a five-year-old child's fingernail and almost as hard." (pg. 145)
ReplyDeleteFinlay gave us a visual of how the bug looked and felt by giving us something to compare it to instead of just stating that it was small and hard.
For Definition I chose a passage from "Red". "It is the kermes insect-the Indo-European cousin of the cochineal, chemically related but with a much weaker concentration of color. From its Sanskrit name, krim-dja, came the words carmine and crimson. And today's Persian speakers still use the word "kermes" if they want to describe red." (pg. 145)
This effectively portrays definition because it gives a detailed dictionary worthy definition of the kermes bug; She even going as far as to relating it to similar species.
For exemplification I used a quote from "Red". "Every color and knot meant something different. So a black string represented time, yellow was god, and blue referred to the sky and-by extension the gods. But red, deep purplish red, represented the Incas themselves, their armies, and their all-powerful emperor." (pg. 143)
Finlay supported her statement by giving us examples of various colors and their meanings to give us an understanding of the importance of the colors.
In the chapter “White”, the quote that I found that Finlay’s uses description when she mentioned, “X rays are electromagnetic waves, just like light expect they have a much smaller frequency than light and so can pass through more objects” (pg. 121). This is description because it is describing how x-rays actually travel and how they are visually. Also, I found that Finlay’s uses exemplification in the chapter “Red”, when she stated, “The leaves propagate without human interference: they fall off naturally and their tiny prickles turn into roots” (pg. 139). I believe this is exemplification because she is giving an example of how nature has its natural way of being in a positive way. It is illustrating that this particular plant does not need to be care for but it is independent. Finlay uses definition effectively when she mentioned, “I imagine he was a creative, experimental and individualistic man” (pg. 175). I found this quote to be a definition because she is explaining and providing in great detail how she would predictably imagine his character traits.
ReplyDeleteDescription
ReplyDelete“I consulted a book on poisons and imagined being one of those nineteenth-century fashion victims. If I had assiduously applied Bloom of Youth every morning, I would first feel a sense of lethargy: I’d probably blame it on those wretched corsets. . . like the consumptive heroine of a Puccini opera. Rather romantic really, I’d joke with my girlfriends” (Finlay, 112-113).
This paragraph is an example of description. Victoria Finlay constructs a narrative of how someone who wore “Bloom of Youth” might show symptoms of lead poisoning, and how they might interpret those symptoms as a beauty benefit (112-113). Finlay describes how “Bloom of Youth” would affect the person who wore it through storytelling and simile.
Definition
“The sheer range of oils from nuts and seeds in the bazaars of North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean would have been intoxicating. Linseed oil was the new material for artists, and had recently replaced tempera. . . Gums and resins come from trees- but gums turn to jelly when they are mixed with water, while resins only dissolve in oils, alcohol and the spirit of turpentine” (179).
Here, Finlay is employing definition. Finlay is defining the uses for different types of oils (179). She defines the oils by explaining where the oils come from, how they look, and how they react when mixed with other mediums (179).
Exemplification
“This particular red, carmine, is really made of blood. For centuries it was the treasure of the Incas and the Aztecs, and for centuries after that it was the treasure of the Spaniards, who guarded their secret crop jealously. . . because on the day it is fresh, carmine, or cochineal or crimson; it has many names – is one of the reddest dyes that the natural world has produced” (136).
In this paragraph, Finlay is implementing exemplification. Finlay is giving examples of how carmine was used regardless of its lasting qualities (136). She gives examples of who used carmine and for what purposes it was used (136).
-Madison A Tingey
Description - “…I noticed an old carriage in a nearby room and went to have a look. It was made in 1663 – when Stradivari was twenty – and was owned by the Carozzas, the richest family in Cremona. Today it looks rather ridiculous, the kind of squat little pumpkin that Cinderella could have fled the ball in; it is even the same reddish orange color. It looks like the horse-drawn equivalent of a jolly Volkswagen Beetle, although I am sure, given its ownership credentials and its general lightness, in its time it was a cheeky Ferrari.” (p 179 in eBook)
ReplyDeleteFinlay’s description of the old carriage is effective because it allows the reader to clearly visualize the carriage in its color, shape, and silliness while also affording the reader a modern day comparison to the Beetle and Ferrari.
Definition - “White paint is white because it reflects most light rays away from it. The penalty it pays for this apparent purity is that it absorbs almost no light into its own body, and – for lead white at least – this means that its own heart is black.” (p. 104 in eBook)
This definition of the color white, particularly in terms of lead white, is effective because it scientifically explains white in terms of how it reflects light, absorbing almost none of that light, and ends with the idea that lead white has a black heart. The “black heart” gives the reader the idea that lead white is bad, and it is when used in make-up and then absorbed into the skin, killing its wearer with continuous use over time.
Exemplification - “For many cultures red is both death and life – a beautiful and terrible paradox. In our modern language of metaphors, red is anger, it is fire, it is the stormy feeling of the heart, it is love, it is the god of war, and it is power.” (p. 134 in eBook)
Finlay’s exemplification of the cultural paradoxes in the color red is effective because she provides examples of how red is viewed and these examples are all relatable and clearly show our opposing views regarding this color.
Finlay displays description in chapter “Red”. In the sentence, “The leaves propagate without human interference: they fall off naturally and their tiny prickles turn into roots” (Page 139), the author effectively describes how the leaves propagate (how plants breed) without humans helping.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter “Orange” we see a great use of definition by Finlay. “Scriabin was synaesthetic, which meant his brain made connections between things that the majority of people do not believe to be fundamentally connected. Synaesthesia can take several forms (people can see colors in pair, or in letters of the alphabet) but Scriabin “saw” music and “heard” colors.” (Page 196) We can tell that this is used effectively because the author described its simple definition and more common ways to be found in people.
Finlay displays exemplification clearly in chapter “White”. One example is the quote, “I consulted a book on poisons and imagined being one of those nineteenth-century fashion victims. I would first feel a sense of lethargy: I’d probably blame it on those wretched corsets. I would then, perhaps, stop sleeping, which would give a pallid hollow to my cheeks. My Victorian suitors might even find this an attractive look fitting the idea of what a woman should be like “dead-pale,” but with a lovely face, a Lady of Shalott.” (Page 113) This is an example of exemplification because not only was she describing what her example of what nineteenth-century fashion victims looked liked, but she also talked about how that look fit what Victorian suitors liked.
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ReplyDeleteIn chapter Red the author uses description, “The fashion world reacts quickly to new materials, and suddenly wealthy Europeans were demanding that their cloth be made in this new deep red, often called either “grana” or “in grain.” Women were also going crazy for what was seen as the ultimate cosmetic” (149). Finlay uses description in the previous sentence to show how people would quickly invest in the new materials that had just came out. She uses personification on the fashion world by making it seem like if it has reactions. The second sentence also uses description to show how women would become excited for the new cosmetics, the women were not actually going crazy.
definition,Where does she provide a memorable definition?
In the chapter White definition is being used in page 112, “In one of them a young man asks his uncle, an old chap in a monocle (and very tight hunting trousers) the name of the ‘lovely young creature on whom all the heavy swells in the room are dancing attendance ” The author is using definition to describe the young lady as something marvelous .
exemplification Where does she provide enlightening examples of something?
Victoria decided to use exemplification in the chapter Orange on page 180 she says, “For Chios was the home of one of the most important items in a stringed instrument-maker’s work box: a lemon-colored resin that is so chewy it is called “mastic” and which was then so highly priced it would have made anyone gulp”. She is describing an item in a stringed instrument-maker’s work box, she describes the color and how pricey it is.