Exaggerated reality (Visual TOW#27)

       Every now and then a delicious, appetizing, and infatuating burger will appear on the TV screen between shows and whatever food the viewers had in mind immediately changes to a trip to McDonald. However, little did McDonald fans wonder the reality of McDonald burgers compared to those on advertisements. Exactly how much resemblance do the virtual and real burgers have? To answer the interesting, yet infrequently asked question, an organization called Web Odyssem compared real burgers from McDonald and those from advertisement, reaching the disappointing yet questionable conclusion that a hyper-hyperbole is used in advertisements.

       The primary strategy Web Odyssem used to convince the viewers of McDonald advertisements’ exaggerated reality is through juxtaposition of virtual and real burgers. The viewers, upon seeing the picture, are immediately attracted to the incongruity of a handsome looking burger on the left and a pale, even sickly, looking burger on the right. Upon closer inspection, the viewers then realize the caption “advertisement” on the left and “reality” on the right. The brilliant use of juxtaposition of two dramatically different images allows the viewers to imminently realize the drastic differences between real and virtual burgers and acts as a convincing evidence for the organization to assert the fraudulence of McDonald advertisements.

       Despite the great use of juxtaposition, Web Odyssem lacks one serious element to fully convince their viewers of McDonald’s use of hyper-hyperbole: the missing of ethos. Though the picture is impactful, there were no explanations on how the real burger is obtained. The words on top of the real burger, saying “most attractive angle” and “slightly fluffed up” may be effective to McDonald haters, but to an ambivalent person these negative assertions, without any kind of backing, seem to be going too far. Real McDonald burgers may not be pretty-looking, but certainly the best-looking real burger is not that ugly of a mess.

       See for yourself? Try a McBurger and find out

The Disposable Rocket by John Updike (Text TOW#26)

       A gifted and respected Harvard graduate, Updike is well-known for his amazing ability to write, to perceive, and to describe. In his short essay “The Disposable Rocket,” Updike focused his scrutiny upon the common association of males. Nature has given humanity two types of people: men and women. However, the perception of these two genders is given by human societies. John Updike trespassed the multiple culture barriers and dived straight to the essence of masculinity: its essence and purpose. Appealing to male readers worldwide, Updike asserts that masculinity is both rough and fragile, driven uncontrollably by the desire to proliferate.

       Using a personal diction, Updike welcomes his audience to put his insight into masculinity to the test of their personal experiences and asserts his credibility as a writer, building both intimacy and convincingness. As he discusses the sensations of inhabiting a male body, Updike deliberately chooses to include words such as “I” or “our”, saying “My impulse to hurl myself from high windows and the edges of cliffs belongs to my body, not my mind”, saying “ I used to jump and fall just for the joy of it”, saying ”Our essence seems to lie not in cells and muscles but in the traces our thoughts and actions inscribe in the air” (Oates 551). The repeated reference of words such as “I” and “our” connects the audience, whom are presumably male, to the examination of masculinity Updike brings to the table. The readers can reflect upon their boyhood, their dreams, and their actions. The readers can re-call their desire to compete and to fly and the inevitable disappointment of falling.

       Assisting the use of personal diction is Updike’s extensive use of descriptive and slightly humorous similes, keeping the readers both engaged and aware. As Updike began to touch upon the sensible subject of male sexuality, he purposefully compared the sex organ to a “little brother”, stating “it is like having a smaller brother toward whom you feel both fond and impatient; if he is you, it is you in curiously simplified and ignoble form” (Oates 551). The delicate touch of comparing sex drive to a desirous little brother brilliantly avoided any discomforts a direct confrontation might bring to the male reader. However, the comparison at the same time appealed Updike’s opinion of masculinity with great clarity.

       Off the Rocket goes

The Marginal World by Rachel Carson (Text Tow#25)

       An international famous biologist and conservationist, Rachel Carson is known for her writings on the beauty of life, especially those living in the deep and inscrutable ocean. The Marginal World is another one of Rachel Carson’s beautiful work, fully exploring the beauty of organism that survive between the line of land and sea, the beauty of the edge of the sea.

       First published in The New Yorker, the Marginal World is a universal and interesting read for American audiences. Every person has a place in their heart for the caring of nature and of the environment which they live in, and Carson masterfully explores this tender spot, appealing to the Americans, and gradually to the world, of the importance of conservation and the unsurpassable grace of life.

       Carson in her short essay primary relies upon ethereal imagery and a magical tone to convey to the audience of the remarkable nature seen through her eyes. In portraying the diversity and vitality of life on the seashore, Carson repeatedly uses anaphora, saying “life descends into fissures and crevices; life tunnels into solid rock and bores into peat and clay; life encrusts weeds and drifting spars; life exists minutely, as spheres of protozoa and small as pinpricks” (Oates 215). In reminiscence of her meeting with the star fish, Carson was very specific with her description, reflecting how “ a little star fish hung down by the merest thread; it reached down to touch its own reflection, so perfectly delineated” (Oates 216). The specific scenes of life majestically portrayed by Carson and her repeated emphasis upon “life” all gave her imageries an additional convincingness. The imageries Carson portrayed can give the readers nothing but awe toward nature.

       Alongside Carson’s exquisite imageries of nature was the almost magical tone she used for her description, adding to the wonderful scenery of life. Carson included herself in her portrayal of nature, describing one scene as “ I look for the most delicately beautiful o fall the shore’s inhabitants, flowers blooming on the threshold of the deeper sea” and another as : I was filled with awareness that although abandoned briefly by the sea, the area is always reclaimed by rising tide”(Oates 216). The first person narration and the ethereal surroundings of “blooming flowers and “rising tide” gave the description an extraordinary feel, as if Carson, with nature has trespassed the mundane, and stepped into a place with much more perfection.

       Nature is truly beautiful.