Hellenistic Rhetoric
The Characters of Theophrastus
I wanted to make a note of this reading for later reference for my creative writing. It reminded me of other creative writing books that review characters' characterization and psychology as it is important to understand a diversity of people to properly implement them into a story. Of course, this reading is more simplified and goes into character "trope" territory, but tropes are helpful to know. I can also see it being used for speeches since it can help understand the psyche of a potential audience and how to appeal to them.
"I have associated, too, with many and diverse natures; and, having observed side by side, with great closeness, both the good and the worthless among men, I conceived that I ought to write a book about the practices in life of either sort. I will describe to you, class by class, the several kinds of conduct which characterise them and the mode in which they administer their affairs."
I noticed that Hellenistic culture continues the Greek tradition of categorization and definition. It not only provides details, but it also gives a clue into how they thought and assigned value (as well as morality) to personalities. For example, a negative value is assigned to "The Flatterer" as he sees others by how "profitable to him who flatters." Flattery for gain is not the same as flattery for the sake of it. Their kindness is not true so their value plunges. To do good, one must be good. "The Penurious Man" is given the description of being too careful and "is too strict attention to profit and loss." One of the examples is him counting cups to see who drunk how many and what. This is seen as negative as the culture seems to value generosity and by being so strict, they suffer over tiny details that barely give value. Sure, salt may be a few coins, but this person would rather have a bland meal than have some luxury. Their behavior extends to others as the wife and guests are forced to eat the bland food as well. There is no point in having a few extra coins if one is left worse for wear. A similar personality was "The Distrustful Man" but the root of this type is paranoia (and maybe OCD?) instead of money. On top of this, I found most of the types could fall under men who are not aware of their bad etiquette and men who are only looking to gain something (money, power, etc.)
Rhetoric ad Alexandrum
This treatise goes into the categorization of speeches before diving into specifics. The genres are political, ceremonial, and forensic. I will focus on political as it intrigues me more. The further division is species and main topics. A helpful way to remember it is the "7s" as there are seven species (exhortation and dissuasion, praise and blame, accusation and defense, and investigation) and seven main topics (religious ritual, legislation, the constitution, alliances and treatises, war, peace or finance). The eight aspects of this type of speech are justice, legality, expediency, honor, facility, pleasure, practicability, and necessity. So, a speech will logically be something like this political > exhortation > necessity > alliance (his political speech encouraged a necessary alliance between our country and a neighboring one to deter barbarians). The speech can be polished through the use of rhetorical techniques such as examples, probability, and proof. The rhetor could add something like "Historically, creating alliances has been to our benefit to deter outsiders" or "There are foreign flags and fabrics that have been left at the outer edges of our land." With these in mind, the rhetor should have the political speech laid out well by introduction and attention > narrative and confirmation > amplification/refutation and emotion > conclusion and action.
However, a rhetor should keep in mind if their language falls under "Three kinds of words, simple, complex, and metaphorical" when it comes to the audience, the structure, and the frequency. A mixture is good for variety, but one must adjust to the type of audience they are talking to and make sure the point is still gotten clearly across.
On Memory
The reading divides memory into natural and artificial. Natural is innate while artificial is trained. Artificial is also described as "the product of art." I find understanding it as an art easier. One has to train to improve artistry. To improve memory, one has to practice. There are a few ways to retain information in one's memory, but this reading focused on the concept of a memory palace. This way combines backgrounds and imagery. For example, I imagine keys and "place" that imagery in the mudroom. Through practice, I will better remember my keys since I attached the imagery to the background (the mudroom). By creating a memory palace, one weaves information together through associations, grouping, and imagery. Bedroom, closet, mudroom > backpack, shoes, keys > The backpack puts on its new shoes and grabs its keys to go on an adventure.
Cicero
Like Rhetoric ad Alexandrum, the reading provides a manual for speeches. The structure is similar as it goes introduction, narrative, confirmation, refutation, and conclusion with the exception of Cicero including partition. Instead of going into "kinds" of speeches, Cicero delves into the "parts" of the structure. For an introduction, it should have a goal, a case, and a method (Well-disposed > honorable > direct). There is advice to avoid techniques such as flowery language, generalizations, and dullness as this can cause issues for the audience (such as confusion, anger, and boredom). The body is similar to the other reading, but it is differentiated at the conclusion. The conclusion includes three parts: summation, indignation, and pity. Indignation has fifteen topics and pity has sixteen. Summary is a given, but indignation and pity are a tightrope to use. They can aid a speech, but it must be carefully considered which topic to use and when to use it in the conclusion. Since both rely on emotion, it requires a rhetor to understand the audience and read the room.