Clint Eastwood makes my rhetorical day with a double dose of Kairos.

2. TODAY
1) Icebreaker – Mapping
2) New Rhetorical term: Kairos and
super-short lecture on
genre/occasion
3) Briefly touching on the reading,
because…
4) Videos: Clint Eastwood and the
RNC
5) Writing time
6) Homework

3. ICEBREAKER
For today‘s icebreaker, I‘m going to draw the
building on the board. I want you to then, to
the best you can with scale, draw your Miami,
as experienced these first few weeks, around
it.
It‘s basically a map of how you come to
class, but include all the sites along the way
that are part of your new world.
And, in some way, note where
home is (probably just with an
arrow in some direction, since
the board is only so big)

4. KAIROS
I mentioned briefly last class that while
we started to discuss rhetoric, we‘ve only
scratched the surface looking at
Aristotle‘s triangle. Later we‘ll look at
Cicero‘s five canons (not five cannons,
sadly), another sort of heuristic.
But before we hit another system with a
drawing and such, I want to dwell a bit on
a few rhetorical concepts that are of use
when doing analysis.
The first I want to talk about is my
personal favorite, Kairos. There‘s an
example of this on my Tumblr, if any of
you read it over the weekend.

5. KAIROS
From Wikipedia, because Wikipedia rules:
Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning
the right or opportune moment (the supreme
moment). The ancient Greeks had two words for
time,chronos and kairos. While the former refers
to chronological or sequential time, the latter
signifies a time in between, a moment of
indeterminate time in which something special
happens. What the special something is depends on
who is using the word. While chronos is
quantitative, kairos has a qualitative nature.

6. KAIROS
In my words:
Kairos is “the right time” from the cliché “the
right place at the right time.” There are really
complex examples, but here’s a really simple
one, on the next slide

8. So Kairos…
…is about time.
Luckily, we had a national event this past
week, the Republican National Convention,
that will allow us to look at Kairos in action in
just a bit.
But first, a few other concepts that might be
useful as we move into this next bit of activity.

9. Other tropes
Personification: giving human attributes
to inanimate objects (like, IDK, an empty
chair). Also sometimes used with other
living things, like animals or insects.
Metonymy: using an object– usually a
symbolic object, like a crown to represent
royalty—to stand in for a thing. Or maybe
to use, IDK, a chair for something.
Apostrophe (not ‗): addressing someone
or something abstract that is not actually
present. Like, again, IDK, what might be
in an empty chair.

10. We see…
…metonymy in the Street essay you read for
today. Ironic that his name is Street and he‘s
talking about walking in the streets, isn‘t it?
Irony is another rhetorical concept, btw. And
funny aside: the song ―Ironic‖ by Alanis
Morrisette is ironic because none of the
things she mentions in the song are actually
ironic.
That was a digression– another
rhetorical concept.
Back to Street: where do we see
metonymy in his piece?

11. And now…
For the next few moments I‘m going to
yield the floor to Clint Eastwood. Before I
do, though, two things I want to say.
One: I love this Chrysler commercial
because I think the tone is pitch-perfect.
Two: I am not taking a position for or
against the Republican positions
expressed at the RNC. This activity isn‘t
meant to be about the actual opinions but
rather about the rhetorical situation Mr.
Eastwood created.

12. The Kairos of Eastwood,
Part I
Commercial, from halftime of the Super Bowl:

13. Where’s the…
…Kairos?
Notice as well the tone used here, the
central thrust. I am not going to ask you
to all tell me these things out loud, but
scribble this in your notes: who was the
audience? What appeals did Eastwood
use? What was the occasion? Was he
successful in your opinion? What
worked?

14. The Kairos of Eastwood,
Part II
Primetime Speech at the Republican National Convention, just
before Presidential Nominee Governor Romney:

15. Where’s the…
…Kairos?
Think specifically about not just the
audience that is present (I think we can
all see their reaction), but think about the
TV audience and the occasion.
Remember, this speech was part of a
break-in to National Television and was
the lead-in to Mitt Romney‘s acceptance
speech, confirming that he is officially the
Republican candidate for President of the
United States.
Let me show you that slide from earlier
again, too.

16. Other tropes
Personification: giving human attributes
to inanimate objects (like, IDK, an empty
chair). Also sometimes used with other
living things, like animals or insects.
Metonymy: using one smaller thing–
usually a symbolic object, like a crown to
represent royalty—to stand in for a
bigger thing. Or maybe to use, IDK, a
chair for something.
Apostrophe (not ‗): addressing someone
or something abstract that is not actually
present. Like, again, IDK, what might be
in an empty chair.

17. A little help…
I didn‘t want to lead you into the woods with no guidance, so I
while I am about to ask you to write about these concepts, I
wanted to give you one concrete example from what we just
watched.
Metonymy, again, is a smaller thing standing in for a larger
whole. Eastwood uses the President this
way, to stand in for all of the spending
and policies of the government as
a whole during his three-and-a-half
years in office.
While people get emotional over
this topic, that is a logical fallacy.
Obama, the man, did not, for example, raise the national debt.

18. Writing time.
I would like you to do this particular
writing on your Tumblr, or if you aren‘t
comfortable writing in that space in class,
as a Word document that you can
upload. I am asking not because I will be
grading this, but because I want to see
how you are doing with these concepts,
and if the posts are on your Tumblrs, I
can see them easily.
I want you to write a rhetorical analysis of
the speech Eastwood gave, given that he
was asked to speak in large part due to
the reception to the commercial I showed
before the speech.

19. Kairos is “the right time” from the
cliché “the right place at the right
time.” It’s a specific time when
something happens that can only
have happened in that special time.
Personification: giving human attributes to inanimate
objects. Also sometimes used with other living things, like
animals or insects.
Metonymy: using an object– usually a symbolic object, like a
crown to represent royalty—to stand in for a thing
Apostrophe (not ‗): addressing someone or something
abstract that is not actually present

20. Now you’re thinkin’, punk…
…did he say to write for six minutes… or only 5?
To tell you the truth, I lost track myself in all this excitement.
But being that this is English 111, the most powerful class in the
world, it‘ll blow your head clean off, you could ask yourself a
question.
Do I feel lucky?
Well do ya, Punk?
Stop writing.
*what?*

21. Let’s talk.
Any questions, or specific thoughts
you want to share from your writing
time?
This is a space holder slide with no
actual nutritional value. It fulfills 0%
of your FDA recommended dose of
PowerPoint by volume.

22. Homework
1) Don‘t forget your Inquiry One essays are due Thursday.
We will write your memos and upload in class. Remember to
bring your laptops.
2) Read the Inquiry Two assignment sheet from the course
site.
3) Tumblr prompt: Pick someone you admire, and locate either
their official website or one of their social media profiles.
Subject them to what we‘ve been doing to our own profiles
and identities; what does that media presence say about the
person. Don‘t forget to include a link so your readers can see
it.
4) Tumblr question: on next slide.

23. Posting your Tumblr Question
1) Go to my Tumblr (follow the Tumblr link on the course site).
2) Login to the site.
3) Go here and click:
4) Post your answer.
What questions do you have about the concepts we learned today?