In Defense of Domination
- He is not really talking about baseball
- He’s talking about the US military, its use, being in various places around the world
- Unreliable narrator; Stein the writer and Stein the person are different people
- Sarcasm, irony are used throughout
- Wants to invoke a response due to the military topic
- Appeared in TIME magazine
- Purpose of piece: could be meditation, to answer a question
- Could be writing for people who agree with him
Stein
- Writes to evoke a response
- Written other works using irony and sarcasm, sometimes gets him in trouble
- Professional writer
- Purpose of piece: effected by how Stein is projected through his past works; ultimately up to the reader
In Defense of Domination Essay
What is Stein’s purpose for writing this essay? Stein’s purpose for writing this essay seems to be to mock that America is in fact not the underdog. The very title is mocking towards the fact that the basic premise of “domination” is never defend able, but then Stein draws parallels to the American institution of nationalism and always being ready to defend itself, even when they do not need to be. Stein is simply mocking America; we are the ultimate overreacting ex-girlfriend that no one wants to talk to.
John Swales Discussion
- A speech community are centripetal because they tend to absorb people into that general fabric and discourse communities are centrifugal meaning they tend to separate people into occupational or specialty-interest groups.
- The Six Defining Characteristics of a Discourse Community:
- 1) Broadly agreed set of public goals
- 2) Mechanisms of intercommunication among members
- 3) Participation for feedback and information
- 4) Uses genres to further its aims as a community
- 5) Genres to acquire specific lexis
- 6) A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.
- Swales claims that the discourse community kind of works as a whole generalized stereotype when it actually isn’t representative as a community as a whole.
Why does this essay suck?
- Takes too long to read
- Wordy as hell
- Not meant for students as an audience
- Not written simply
- It was boring
- Why should I care?
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