Amy Devitt
  • Home
  • About
  • CV and Resume
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Articles and Essays
    • Talks, Seminars, Workshops
    • Occasional Pieces
  • Genre-Colored Glasses

Genre-colored glasses

Thoughts on genre, language, grammar, and other
rhetorical and linguistic norms

Making Connections Across News Stories

7/9/2018

0 Comments

 
Rope connections
Networking, Pixabay, CC0 Creative Commons
​It’s summertime here in the Northern hemisphere, so let’s have some fun.
 
At the family reunion, my grandson taught me a game new to me called Connections. One person names two things, seemingly unrelated, and the other person has to find a real connection from one thing to another to another to another until they find a genuine linked connection from the first item to the second. Sort of like Six Degrees of Separation but no required number and no Kevin Bacon involved
 
The two items can’t have an easy or obvious connection. His example was: you can't use stone and paint, because you can just paint a rock. 
 
But I could name rock and selfie, and then you could build a story about how prevalent rocks are at the ocean and how many selfies are taken at the ocean so that you’re likely to have a rock show up in many selfies.
 
I’m trying an adult (and maybe more discouraging) variation on the game. I’m intrigued by what connections pop up between news stories if I look. So in my version, name two items in the news and find a link from one to the other through other items in the news.
 
Let’s play the game.

Two recent news headlines:
 
1. Kansas GOP candidate says there is 'only barbarism' outside of Western civilization

2. Immigrant children being held in fenced cages at border detention facilities

​
I know, I know, one connection seems too easy. Which “civilization” is being barbaric here?
 
But remember, you can’t offer two things that connect too easily, so I’m going to go another route (even though I may end up with the same idea in the end. Because reality.)

Starting with barbarism outside of Western civilization--
 
1. Republican Kansas State Senator Steve Fitzgerald, who is running for Congress, gave a speech at a gathering of Republicans in Kansas, and he was quoted as saying:
 
“"Outside of Western civilization is only barbarism.” 
 
I kid you not. I’m embarrassed to be a (formerly proud) Kansan these days in many ways, but this one showed enough ignorance to put the cherry on top. Of course, there are ignorant people everywhere, but . . . 
 
OK, back to the connections game (think of each of the bullets in the list below as an arrow pointing to the next link):
​1. Kansas GOP candidate says there is 'only barbarism' outside of Western civilization

  • “Outside of Western civilization” must include Eastern civilization
  • Eastern civilization includes Thailand
  • In Thailand, engineers, Thai Navy Seals, scientists, and many, many volunteers have gathered to rescue a group of Thai boys and their soccer coach who have been stranded in a cave with water rising around them and oxygen running out
  • Those volunteers are demonstrating compassion and empathy, the scientists and engineers are demonstrating intelligence and education, the Seals and volunteer scuba divers are demonstrating bravery, none of which is barbarism
  • The Thai boys are trapped in a cave with rocks as walls and water preventing their escape
  • The immigrant children in Texas (a state in “Western civilization”) are trapped in a detention facility with fencing instead of rocks as walls and guards instead of water preventing their escape
 
2. Immigrant children being held in fenced cages at border detention facilities
 
Ta da!!
​What a proud moment to be able to demonstrate a link between the ignorance of a US politician and the community action of a group of volunteers who happen to be in Thailand, between the barbarism of administrative decisions about how to handle children at a US border and the determination to find a humane way to rescue another group of children.
 
As of this moment, rescuers have gotten 8 of the Thai boys out alive!
 
Meanwhile, the powers-that-be in the US have declared that they need more time to reunite detained children with their families.
 
You make the connection. If the Thai boys were at the Texas-Mexico border, they’d still be trapped.

Here’s a connection challenge for you:
 
I’m copying below the top news stories at the moment (NOT about the Thai boys) from CNN and from FOX news. Let me know if you can see how to connect them:
 
1. CNN: Boris Johnson resigns in major Brexit blow to UK PM Theresa May 
​
2. Fox News: Supreme Court battle lines drawn as conservative group launches ad backing Trump pick 

I don’t know, maybe those violate the rules about not making it too easy, but they are in fact the top stories on each of those sites, and I can imagine different ways to connect.
 
So have at it! Can you make the connection? Let me know if you do.
 
Got any connection challenges for me? It’s summertime, after all. Time for lightheartedness and play (and sad sarcasm)
Children running after soccer balls
GoodFreePhotos, children playing soccer, public domain
0 Comments

    Author
    ​Amy Devitt

    I'm a genre-lover and language nerd who likes to write about the fascinating effects of genres (like grocery lists, blogs, and greeting cards, as well as mysteries and romances) on how we read and write and even live our lives. I also notice grammar a lot, both the "proper" kind and the fun kind, like grammar jokes.  For more, read my post on "What I Notice." I write this blog weekly to point out what I see and in hopes that you will tell me what you see, too. 

      Would you like to be notified when I publish a new post?

    Subscribe to Newsletter

    This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies.

    Opt Out of Cookies

    Archives

    June 2021
    August 2020
    July 2020
    December 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    August 2015

    Previous Posts

    All
    7 Words Not To Say
    Acceptance Speeches
    Acceptance Speech Formula
    Ads
    Alternative Truth
    Alternative Words
    Amy Schumer
    An Academic Learns To Blog
    Apologies
    April Fools' Day
    Bad Apologies
    Bad Public Apologies
    Basketball
    Birthdays
    Bits & Pieces
    Blogging
    Boxing Day
    Business As Usual
    Busted Brackets
    Can Words Kill?
    Categories
    Children's Genres
    Choosing A Response
    Commemorating 9/11
    Commencing Graduation
    Community
    Community And Genres
    Community And Quiet
    Condolences
    Distraction Genres
    Doing Hawaiian
    Email
    Essays
    Evils Done In The Name Of Categories
    Family Reunions
    Fandom
    Father's Day
    Flu
    Funeral
    Generic Responses
    Genre
    Genre In A Scholarly Way
    Genre Reactions
    Genres Are Us
    Genres Matter
    Genre Tripping
    Good (and Bad) Apologies
    Good Sentences
    Graduation
    Greetings
    Hallmark Christmas Movies
    Halloween
    Hearing Or Trial Or Brawl
    Hi Readers!
    Holiday Greeting Cards
    Holidays
    How To Birth A Blog
    How Words Reflect & Shape Us
    Hurricanes And US
    Inaugural Address
    Indigenous Music
    Insults
    It's A Genre
    It's What You Mean
    Jet Lagged
    Labor Day
    Labor Day Genres
    Language And Genre
    Libraries
    Library Genres
    Literary Genres
    Locker Room Talk
    Making Connections
    Mass Shootings
    Meaning
    Memorial Day
    Mom's Day Cards
    Mother's Day
    Music Genres And Innovations
    Native American Musicians
    Never Forget
    New Year
    Normalizing Hatred
    Once In A Lifetime
    Patient As Medical History
    POTUS Tweets
    Preparing For Solar Eclipse
    Presidents Day
    Pronouns
    Psychology-of-genre
    Retirement
    Rhetoric-matters
    Rhetoric Still Matters
    Scenes Of Writing
    Scholarly Writing
    Solar Eclipse
    Syllabus
    Thanks Giving
    Thank You
    They Becomes Official
    Top 6 New Year's Genres
    TV Genres
    TV Genres Part 2
    Twelve Genres Of Christmas
    Twitter
    Understand Genre In Two Pictures
    Vacation
    Vacation Post Card
    Veterans Day
    Visual Genres
    Vote
    What A Syllabus Does
    What Does Alt-right Mean
    What Is A Declaration?
    What I Write About
    What Voice Recognition Software Doesn't Recognize
    When I'm Sorry Doesn't Work
    Which English Language?
    Who Is Your "They"?
    Who Is Your "We"?
    Words Can't Speak
    Words Matter
    Workshops
    WOTY Dumpster Fire
    Writing
    Writing Our Experiences
    You Know You're Old When

    RSS Feed

Copyright Amy Devitt © 2018
  • Home
  • About
  • CV and Resume
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Articles and Essays
    • Talks, Seminars, Workshops
    • Occasional Pieces
  • Genre-Colored Glasses