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Dramatism and Rhetoric xii Acknowledgments and her parents, Charles and Martha Reiske, have been the best in-laws anyone could have. The true rhetoricians in our family are the twins, Meagan Belle and Matthew Michael, whose exuberance and love as symbol-using and mis-using animals knows no bounds. 1 -D.E. Dramatism and Rhetoric Cartoonist Gary Larson begins The PreHistory ofThe Far Side: A Tenth Anniversary Exhibit by announcing, "I thought it might be time to reveal some ofthe background, anecdotes, foibles, and 'behind-the-scenes' ex­ periences related to this [The Far Side] cartoon panel. (This mayor may not be of particular interest to anyone, but my therapist says it should do me a lot of good)" (Foreword). This collection of sketches, single­ panel cartoons, and commentary is a chronicle of The Far Side's birth (in 1980) and its evolution. Like Larson's other collections, it is filled with panels ofdogs, cats, mad scientists, snakes, babies, ducks, and cows (galore)-all depicted in some bizarre or nonsensical situation, often with a verbal explanation that works with the drawings to achieve the comical effect (or not). One of my favorites shows two ducks standing together next to a pond, gazing up at a flock ofcrudely drawn birds fly­ ing overhead. The caption reads, "I just can't tell from here. ... That could either be our flock, another flock, or just a bunch oflittle m's." A single-panel cartoon like The Far Side offers a slice of life, a (sometimes) familiar scene with which readers mayor may not identify. We scan for meaning and significance and if it's on target, we laugh, or perhaps smile inwardly, then go about our business. Larson has also gained fame for being obscure. He describes his cartoon "Cow Tools"­ depicting a cow standing in front of a table filled with oddly shaped tools-in this way: "I drew a really weird, obtuse cartoon that no one understood and wasn't funny and therefore 1 went on to even greater 1 Representative Words 3 2 Chapter 1 Dramatism and Rhetoric success and recognition. [ ... ] Yeah-I like this country" (I57). Whether on target or obscure, the cartoons appeal as minidramas, rep­ resentative ofsome desire or need in the artist or in his audience. People named "Doug" were especially taken by Larson's panel depicting a rather large man "hiding" behind a tree in a front yard while a door-to­ door salesman reads the sign on the gate, "Beware ofDoug." (It's easy to imagine how many Dougs had that one tacked to an office door.) What exactly do these cartoons do for us? For Larson? Are they a kind ofcure, as Larson's therapist suggests? And what on earth is the appeal ofobscu­ rity or ambiguity? Representative Words "Cartoons are, after all, little stories themselves, frozen at an interesting moment in time" (113), Larson observes. What story does the panel in Figure 1.1 tell? What is interesting about its moment? We see a grinning and toothy man who has apparently just finished sloppily painting words on their corresponding objects: The Tree, Garbage Can, The House, The Door, Shirt, Pants, The Cat, The Dog. The caption reads: "Now! ... That should clear up a few things around here!" What, if anything, has he cleared up, and why is he so happy about it? There has clearly been some sort of anxiety about "things" that had to be "cleared up." That is, there is some situation that has supplied a motive for the man to respond with his paintbrush and bucket, an act that has him clearly feeling relieved. You could surmise that he has in HNow! •..'That should clear up a few things around here!" the past had trouble remembering what words go with what things, so that problem is now solved (except perhaps for the lawn, sky, drainpipe, Figure 1.1 GaryLarson, The Far Side. roof, his glasses, nose, and all the other objects depicted). Words, of Source: The Far Side® by Gary Larson © 1987 FarWorks, Inc. All rights reserved. Used course, are what he uses to communicate with others, so it could be that with permission. after his artistry, he will be able to communicate more clearly and effec­ tively with them, the mystery ofwhat signs go with what things resolved and unambiguous. Or in an even more general sense, it could be that the man has stabilized the slippage of meaning or bridged the gap be­ the anxiety, the situation, is over the inherent problem posed by lan­ tween the signifier (the word as a sound or image) and the signified (the guage, that words are not the things themselves, but representative of object or concept). Interestingly, the man feels relieved for having done things. They function as symbols, in other words. The correspondence this. It is as ifthe act ofassigning unambiguous meaning has a cathartic or relationship between symbols and what they represent has (until this effect. The act of using words (in fact, writing them literally on the cartoon panel) been somewhat arbitrary. For example, when we use the world) reduces uncertainty or anxiety, which makes him feel better. His word dog, we may mean or see our dog, your dog, the species dog (the act has made the potential for misinterpretation a thing of the past, in ultimate dog), or some other dog. Language philosophers might say that 4 Chapter 1 Dramatism and Rhetoric All the Words, a Stage 5 one fell swoop (or as a friend of mine once accidentally put it, one swell foop). All the Words, a Stage ~at mi?h~ the cartoon do for Gary Larson? For us? Perhaps the Dramatism is a philosophy of language, with stress upon the original mans.silly gnn IS .a clue. He doesn't have the demeanor of a genius (if meaning ofphilosophy [philo =life + sophos =knowledge], the study of there Is.such a thmg). If he thinks that he's (cleared anything up, he's language as a way of living and knowing. In the broadest sense, drama­ sadly mIstaken. In The PreHistory ofThe Far Side, Larson confesses to a tism is life, life lived in a world populated by people acting through lan­ g.reat deal o~ ~nxie~ ?f his own about trying to get his cartoons just guage to build societies, establish and maintain social relations, adjust to nght, of avoIdmg mIsmterpretation and ambiguity. Yet he and we, too, their social situation, and come to terms with their existence in time and know t~at while the motive is pure, the act is futile. We have all experi­ space. Dramatism analyzes language and thought as modes of action enced dIsagreements caused by misunderstanding, by some failure not rather than as means of conveying information. Thus, for dramatism, merely of compassion or intellect, but borne of words and their multi­ language is a form of symbolic action. The dramatistic view of the ple meanings, theirpotential for making our lives easier or yet more dif­ world holds that language is notsimply a tool to be used by people (ac­ fic~lt th~n they might otherwise be. In the novel Free Fall (1959), Nobel tors), but the basis for human beings acting together and thus, ofall hu­ :nze Wmner.Willi.am Golding's narrator notes the problem succinctly: man relations. Words act, in other words, to define, persuade, appease, To commumcate IS our passion and our despair" (9). divide, identify, entertain, victimize, move, inspire, and so on. It might An answer or rejoinder to the intrigues and problems posed by our help to understand language as symbolic action when you consider ~ymbol systems-?ur various ways of expressing meaning-is the sub­ whether it makes a big difference to say "I am not crazy" rather than "I Ject ofthIS book. I m using the Gary Larson cartoon as a representative am happy" when you are indeed happy. The use of the negative in the anecdote, a slice-of-life story that captures an interesting moment but first performs an act ofdenial, even ifit doesn't make any positive asser­ that also can generate questions about a broader subject. In this case, the tion about what you actually are. "I am not crazy" could mean that you cartoon raises questions about, among other things, are happy. You may be far worse or better than crazy. As a resource of language, the negative can be seen as a purely verbal act because on the O~r. 1. desire to "clear things up" or change our circumstances by one hand it doesn't convey any information, yet on the other it may in­ wntmg about or around them (or on them, in this case) duce some change in the attitude of others. Imagine, for instance, what T~e 2. "problem" in which we all find ourselves as symbol-using will happen ifyou walk around town mumbling "I am not crazy." ammals, a world where meaning and significance is both a mys­ Kenneth Burke (1897-1993) was the philosopher, critical theorist, tery and an opportunity for gaining power over our own lives or and rhetorician who made dramatism the central tenet of his work and those ofothers who has influenced the thinking of countless others interested in the 3. The function of the word as an act in a scene (the front yard) study of speech, writing, and society. Dramatism originated in his work performed by a person or agent (our grinning man) with means in the mid-1930s and marked his attempt to develop a systematic or agency (a paintbrush) for a purpose (to clear things up) method for analyzing human communication in all its complexity.
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