Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama

305 Pages·2014·3.35 MB·English

by  Sam Leith

YOU TALKIN’ TO ME?

YOU TALKIN’ TO ME?
Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama
SAM LEITH
First published in Great Britain in 2011 by
PROFILE BOOKS LTD
3A Exmouth House
Pine Street
London EC1R 0JH
www.profilebooks.com
Copyright © Sam Leith, 2011
Frontispiece: ‘Rhetorick’ by Richard Blome,
used with the kind permission of Gillian Darley
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Typeset in Iowan by MacGuru Ltd
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without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the
publisher of this book.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 84668 315 2
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CONTENTS
Introduction 1
Rhetoric Then and Now 17
THE FIVE PARTS OF RHETORIC 41
The First Part of Rhetoric: Invention 45
Ethos 47
Logos 57
Pathos 66
Champions of Rhetoric I: Satan – The Original
Silver-tongued Devil 74
The Second Part of Rhetoric: Arrangement 81
Exordium 84
Narration 86
Division 90
Proof 92
Refutation 98
Peroration 104
Champions of Rhetoric II: Marcus Tullius Cicero –
The Attack Dog of the Roman Forum 107
YOU TALKIN’ TO ME?
The Third Part of Rhetoric: Style 117
Decorum 117
Jokes 124
Sound Effects 125
Controlling the Tense 128
The Figures 130
Champions of Rhetoric III: Abraham Lincoln –
‘A few appropriate remarks’ 134
The Fourth Part of Rhetoric: Memory 143
Champions of Rhetoric IV: Hitler and Churchill 158
The Fifth Part of Rhetoric: Delivery 172
THE THREE BRANCHES OF ORATORY 185
The First Branch of Oratory: Deliberative Rhetoric 189
Champions of Rhetoric V: Martin Luther King, Jr –
Daydream Believer 199
The Second Branch of Oratory: Judicial Rhetoric 208
Champions of Rhetoric VI: Barack Obama –
The Audacity of Trope 218
The Third Branch of Oratory: Epideictic Rhetoric 235
Champions of Rhetoric VII: The Unknown Speechwriter 248
Thus It Can Be Shown … 261
Appendix: Glossary and Key Concepts 263
Notes 281
Index 288
For Mum
Also by Sam Leith
FICTION
The Coincidence Engine
NON-FICTION
Dead Pets
Sod’s Law
INTRODUCTION
LET ME START with a scene from The Simpsons:
MARGE: (sings) ‘How many roads must a man walk down
before you can call him a man?’
HOMER: Seven.
LISA: No, Dad, it’s a rhetorical question.
HOMER: OK, eight.
LISA: Dad, do you even know what ‘rhetorical’ means?
HOMER: Do I know what ‘rhetorical’ means?
It is not too much to say that on this little scene the
whole premise of the book you hold in your hand hinges. Do
you know what ‘rhetorical’ means? Because you should; and
if Homer Simpson, one of the greatest Everyman figures of
the late twentieth century, can make a joke about rhetoric,
you can be assured that this is not a subject that needs to
be intimidating.
So what is rhetoric? Rhetoric is, as simply defined as pos-
sible, the art of persuasion: the attempt by one human being
to influence another in words. It is no more complicated
than that. You are probably accustomed to thinking of rhet-
oric in terms of formal oratory: the sort of public speeches
you see politicians make on television, CEOs make at AGMs
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