Classic Rhetoric and Persuasion

May 13, 2004 6:43 AM

Peitho's Web: Classic Rhetoric and Persuasion.
posted by hama7 (6 comments total)

Any writer, whatever ever his or her specialty, from avant garde fiction, to ad copy, can do no better than to study and follow the classical rules of rhetoric. It's a pleasure to have all this material on one site.
posted by Faze at 7:01 AM on May 13, 2004

I agree: great site. But any writer, whatever his or her speciality should also avoid color schemes like that. My eyes!
posted by swordfishtrombones at 7:08 AM on May 13, 2004

No question about that. It's u-g-g-g-gly. This brings up the question raised by so many sites posted by people who may be brilliant or well-informed in a specific field (usually literary), but are absolutely clueless when it comes to site design -- Do they have some enormous blind spot when it comes to visual matters? Are they idiot savants? What is the psychology behind grotesque web design by otherwise intelligent people? Why do so many sites that I want to read have subjects like "The Sermons of John Donne" and lurid design reminiscent of florescent signs outside of 70s strip joints?
posted by Faze at 7:26 AM on May 13, 2004

John Donne (1572-1631) was the most outstanding of the English Metaphysical Poets and a churchman famous for his spellbinding sermons.

I was looking for some bad design, but instead I found this:

Online Literature.
posted by hama7 at 7:45 AM on May 13, 2004

The Forest of Rhetoric is my favorite page on this subject. My favorite is paralepsis, second favorite is tmesis.
posted by mokujin at 9:02 AM on May 13, 2004

I wish I had the patience and the concentration to read this stuff. I follow it well enough, but when they start throwing names around, it gets confusing. "Phaedrus was as good as Oedichinus, who made Aeiuriul look like a poor-man's Thaedrius." Anyone got a decent intro to reading classical texts?
posted by Succa at 11:58 AM on May 13, 2004