TOW #13 - Why I've never seen a 'Star Wars' movie

This week, while a majority of the population got overexcited for the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, there were a handful of people sitting unenthusiastically, because they had never seen Star Wars before. Similar to the text "What Really Keeps Women out of Tech," which emphasized the stereotypical computer programmer as a white male with space posters in their rooms, "Why I've never seen a 'Star Wars' movie" from Business Insider by Tanza Loudenback showed how people who were never exposed to sci-fi as children aren't usually interested in the topics that are seemingly landmark and significant. This is a light text that used a casual, relatable tone and humor to convey the message that people who've never seen Star Wars before shouldn't feel bad about themselves and that one can have plenty of fun without watching these seemingly remarkable movies.
Loudenback starts off her text by quoting classic responses she receives when she tells someone that she has never watched Star Wars. "'You're kidding, right?' 'What is wrong with you?' 'Do you hate fun?' - these are just a few of the stunned responses I get when I confess I've never seen a 'Star Wars' movie" (Loudenback 1). This is not only a funny way to open up her text, but it's also a classic response that most people are familiar with and can relate to, no matter if the reader has watched Star Wars or not. Whether someone has said that to somebody else or has heard it from somebody else, it makes the the author feel like an acquaintance or somebody that the reader can have a nice conversation with. After getting the audience to relate to her, she adds humor to show her readers the fun she can have without watching Star Wars.
When someone who has not been exposed to Star Wars feels alone, they can tune into the BBC radio station that Loudenback introduces called "I have never watched Star Wars before." The fact that such a radio station exists gives the reader some amusement as well as give inclusion to those who has never watched it before. She also adds up all of the hours in the Lord of The Rings and Harry Potter movie to show how much time she has saved: 54 hours, in which "I could even hike from California's Big Sur to San Francisco with a couple hours to nap. And in 108 hours, I could train and run a marathon. In that same amount of time, I could also climb more than halfway to Mt. Everest base camp." By putting her situation under this classic light of "In the time that would take me to do that, I could..." idea.
Loudenback addresses the idea that although loving Star Wars was the movie that the nerdy, geeky kids watched, that concept is the current trend and whoever not in that "nerd" mold are now the social outcasts. As someone who watched Star Wars for the first time only recently, I can easily relate to her ideas. For some people, these movies were a big part of their childhood and something that makes them excited decades later. However, no one thing is suitable to everyone, and sometimes the most popular movie or book in the country right now could just be something to be humorous about, as shown by Loudenback.

TOW #12 - Nickel and Dimed (IRB Part 1)

     As interesting as it sounded, Nickel and Dimed was also interestingly written with many different rhetorical devices that worked together along with the investigation itself. As Barbara Ehrenreich flew around places to observe what it was like to live on minimum wage in American cities, I found myself right next to her, following her around, which was a sensation that I'd only felt in fiction novels or emotional memoirs, not an informative nonfiction piece like this one. Although Barbara Ehrenreich keeps her duty as a writer and journalist in reporting facts of what happened during her investigation as a minimum-wage worker, she incorporates metaphoric language and appropriate quotes from her surroundings to keep her reader engaged and feel like they're a part of this way of living.
     Throughout her book, she incorporates facts and figures from this personal experience that she went through while cleaning tables as well as research from outside sources. She organizes her personally collected data by clearly stating the situations of her fellow employees at restaurants in indented forms:

"Gail is sharing a room...for $250 a week...The rent would be impossible alone.

Claude, the Haitian cook, is desperate to get out of the two-room apartment...

Marianne...and her boyfriend are paying $170 a week for a one-person trailer."

While this gives a numerical view on what kind of financial situation her surrounding people are in, she also includes footnotes at the bottom of the paper to expand upon specific topics that she experienced. After she explains the home situation as shown above, she includes the researched statistic that "...nearly one-fifth of all homeless people...are employed in full- or part-time jobs" (Ehrenreich 26). This gives the readers the objective, journalistic side of the story in a microscopic as well as a macroscopic outlook. Although pure objective facts are pretty interesting, she puts these facts under a captivating light through her intricate language style.
     Ehrenreich's well-polished metaphors provides good imagery for readers to picture what it would feel like to work minimum-wage jobs, as compared to simply looking at numeric data. This is a part numbers cannot explain - only hands-on experiences can. While describing a busy, full-packed restaurant she worked in with a terrible sanitary environment, she tells the readers to "Picture a fat person's hell, and I don't mean a place with no food...The kitchen is a cavern, a stomach leading to the lower intestine that is the garbage and dishwashing area, from which issue bizarre smells combining the edible and the offal: creamy carrion, pizza barf...citrus fart" (29). Not only does she have to deal with this horrific-sounding atmosphere, but she also has to deal with managers that keep screaming, "Nita, your order's up, move it!" or "Barbara, didn't you see you've got another table out there? Come on, girl!" (34). Her descriptive language along with the dialogues she constantly heard around her places the reader in the spot where she was as a minimum-wage worked. This gives the readers insight to the direct experience that she had aimed to investigate and write about.
     This is one of the first nonfiction reads with so much numerical data I've thoroughly enjoyed and completely immersed myself into, but at the same time Ehrenreich's craft is very effective in story-telling as well. I hope to be able to broaden my scope and understand how life runs from other people's perspective as well. So far, Ehrenreich seems to be doing that job very well.

TOW #11 - I don't need a 'happy holidays'. Just wish me a Happy Hanukkah, please"

     As December - or even November - rolls in, holiday decorations start filling houses, and to be progressive and equal, many stray away from the phrase "Merry Christmas" and say instead "Happy Holidays." Although this seems like a tolerable, friendly approach to appreciating different religions, not everyone has the same opinion. Lilit Marcus, in his text "I don't need a 'happy holidays'. Just wish me a Happy Hanukkah, please" from the Guardian, uses personal anecdotes, common holiday sights, and logical arguments during holidays to illustrate his idea that the saying "Happy holidays" is just as meaningful to him as "Merry Christmas" is.
     Marcus starts his idea by laying his personal experience of growing up as the only Jewish kid in a large Christian community. By doing so, he establishes credibility that he has a certain authority to speak out this topic on a personal level. He also shows readers how neglected his culture feels at times, and that the situation is more than just about others saying "Merry Christmas" even though he's Jewish. He says that he has to constantly "explain the meaning of Passover...or be accused of 'wanting special treatment' when I took Yom Kippur off of work" (Marcus 1). He claims that matters are much worse if seen through the perspective of someone who is supposed to be benefitting from this new holiday greeting. After he shows how his culture was portrayed around his own environment, he connects it to how his culture is portrayed around many people's environment.
     Currently in parts of the country, many people such as teachers and retail workers wish their students or customers "happy holidays." However, a common American retail store around the holiday season has aisles filled with Christmas decorations, but there's a lack of Hanukkah decorations available in most stores. Walking into a popular retail store in a Jewish community, Marcus saw "seven aisles of Christmas gear and less than one-third of an aisle of Hanukkah stuff," which "barely counts as inclusion. It's separate, and it's nowhere close to being equal." Since many readers are able to relate to this situation, it puts Marcus's argument in a perspective that Christmas celebrators can understand easier and gets his point across more effectively. Also, readers can realize and understand how wishing someone happy holidays doesn't solve every problem nor place all religions and cultures on equal ground.
     Marcus takes these occurrences and winds them up into logical arguments that end up as his main points. Mentioning the 20-foot Christmas tree covering the "Happy Holidays" sign and the red-and-green holiday card, Marcus states that "Going through the motions of inclusion aren’t enough. Simply tolerating other cultures, religions and festivals isn’t sufficient: until we have the same amount of respect, all your pointless gestures of inclusivity ring hollow." These arguments all ultimately end up to his central point: "I don’t feel included; I’m simply reminded that my inclusion is, and always has been, an afterthought." Including these logical arguments make his points clear and articulately landed into his reader's minds, helping readers grasp this idea wholly.
     As society evolves and becomes more accepting, many people have changed their words and actions to suit such changes. However, there's no one-way cure to solving a problem, as shown by Marcus, and although some may disagree with him, he asserts through personal anecdotes, common situations, and logical arguments that he still feels undermined and under-appreciated with such verbal treatment. People have changed their words - now it's time to change actions.