TOW #26 Every Good Boy Does Fine

            Piano lessons are often considered a rite of passage for young children.  In the “Personal History” section of the New Yorker in a piece titled “Every Good Boy Does Fine,” concert pianist Jeremy Denk describes his own experiences with piano lessons and explains how they shaped not only his career but also his understanding of himself.  Denk recounts his own personal history based on the various piano teachers he has had at different points throughout his life.

            As a professional musician, Denk obviously has a much greater knowledge of classical music and music theory than his audience.  For this reason, he employs analogies to make the musical complexities he describes more accessible to average readers.  For example, to enable readers to understand the hopelessness of practicing fingering techniques, Denk writes, “Imagine that you are scrubbing the grout in your bathroom and are told that removing every last particle of mildew will somehow enable you to deliver the Gettysburg Address.”  In addition, Denk utilizes hyperbole as a method of explaining the monotony of some of his practices.  He writes, “Exercises like this are crucial and yet seem intended to quell any natural enthusiasm for music, or possibly even for life.”

            By explaining the different techniques his instructors utilized while teaching, Denk paints a picture of the personalities of these people beyond the realm of classical music.  Also, Denk writes of the hard work required to achieve success as a musician and the fine line that a teacher must walk between critiquing a student’s work and destroying his/her confidence.  As a pianist himself, Denk’s description of the power of music lessons carries a unique sense of credibility.       

TOW #25 The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

            The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass spans from the time of Douglass’ birth into slavery until his escape to New York.  During his time as a slave in Maryland, Douglass experienced the various methods by which Southern slaveholders exert complete control over the slave population and he began to recognize that a slave must first gain intellectual freedom before gaining physical freedom.  To this end, he teaches himself how to read and write and also teaches the slaves around him as well. 

As he becomes literate, Douglass examines how slaveholders often used religion to justify their punishments.  Douglass recalls how one of his most pious masters quoted the Bible while whipping a slave stating, “He that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes” (57).  He reveals the faultiness of this logic by describing his own experience with Christianity and by making various religious allusions that argue against the slaveholders’ conduct.  Throughout the text, Douglass maintains a rather calm and academic tone despite the nature of the events he describes.  In some ways, his work is more effective than other abolitionist pieces because he recognizes that the horrors of slavery need no exaggeration.  While abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison utilized inflammatory rhetoric as a way to rile up the masses, Douglass relied on appealing to the logical and rational minds of the American public.  For this reason, Douglass’ autobiography is considered one of the most important abolitionist works of all time and is partially credited for pushing the United States to confront slavery during the Civil War.

TOW #24 The Giant Squid

            A recent special on the Discovery Channel documented the first time a Giant Squid has ever been captured on video.  One of the lead scientists featured in this documentary, Edith Widder, gave a TED talk this past February describing how she and a team of scientists managed to capture the elusive sea creature on video.  Widder also founded the Ocean Research and Conservation Association, which is dedicated to protecting aquatic ecosystems.

            During the TED talk, Widder was faced with the task of explaining the complex terminology and machinery used by oceanographers in order to help her audience better understand the process behind the mission.  She effectively did this through the use of both images and audio throughout the presentation.  For example, to describe the types of submersibles that were used to capture the footage, Widder displayed images on the PowerPoint along with audio of the noises that the different machines made while passing over the ocean floor.  Next, Widder made the idea of the project more accessible to the audience through the use of humor.  Due to the fact that scientists are often portrayed as aloof and unable to connect with the average citizen, Widder included humorous footage of their reactions upon first seeing the Giant Squid to illustrate the fact that for these scientists, the challenge of finding the Giant Squid was driven by the same passion that others find in less-scientific pursuits.

            Even though the concept of such a large aquatic animal in and of itself is interesting enough to some people, Widder made sure that the entire audience could understand the excitement she and her colleagues felt during the discovery.  Furthermore, Widder used the idea of capturing the Giant Squid as evidence supporting her belief that ocean exploration should receive the same attention as space exploration.

            

TOW #23 Confidence Woman

            Despite the fact that women now make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, executive positions at top-level companies remain largely dominated by men.  In her book Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer at Facebook, argues that this is due in part to the limitations women place on themselves.  As part of a feature article in TIME Magazine, Belinda Luscombe attempts to better understand Sandberg’s controversial position by better understanding Sandberg herself.

            Throughout the text, Luscombe utilizes analogies as a way to describe Sandberg’s upbringing.  For example, Luscombe writes of Sandberg, “She’s like an escapee from a Star Trek episode in which Spock sired a child with an empathy.”  This analogy not only makes the text more accessible by maintaining an informal and humorous tone, but also helps to illuminate why Sandberg is so driven.  In addition, Luscombe utilizes short, declarative sentences as a way to add rhythm to the text and to ensure that the text is not bogged down in confusing jargon.  By using sentences like, “Take her role at Facebook,” and “She’s worth hundreds of millions of dollars,” Luscombe captures the essence of Sandberg’s ruthlessly efficient tendencies.

            Overall, the text manages to stay unbiased and good-humored despite the controversial topic it covers.  This is largely due to Luscombe’s efforts to include make the text more relatable and friendly to readers through pop-culture references.  At the same time, she is able to effectively illuminate Sandberg’s motivations through a careful analysis of her past.   

TOW #22 World Puzzle Championships

            The World Puzzle Championship is an international event that began in 1992 and has taken place in different cities all over the world for the past 21 years.  During the most recent competition, held in Kraljevica, Croatia, TIME Magazine sent Lev Grossman to report on the state of the United States’ top puzzle team.  In his article, Grossman not only discusses the lives of some of the world’s top puzzlers, but he also attempts to explain our society’s fascination with puzzles in general.

            Grossman attributes much of our intrest in puzzles to the fact that they provide us with complete control and concrete answers.  For example, he compared one of the puzzles in the competition with the physical setting of the championship.  In this particular puzzle, competitors had to fit fake boats into a fake harbor of Kralijevica, while in reality, the actual harbor had to be shut down due to the global recession.  Grossman writes, “The puzzle rather starkly revealed the gulf between the Platonic world of logic and our fallen reality: picture a ballroom full of geniuses bent over stylized maps, carefully placing toy boats…while in the windows the sun goes down on the actual Kraljevica harbor, standing idle and empty of any ships whatsoever—and incorrectly solved square on the global economic grid.”

            Because he recognizes the competitive puzzle solving is not the most exciting spectator sport, Grossman attempts to heighten the atmosphere through metaphor and hyperbole.  He writes that one of the competitors had a “gunslinger’s stare” and that one had a “receding hairline, as if the heat from his frontal lobes had burned the hair away from his forehead.”  Interestingly enough, Anderson Wang was mentioned in the article as a potential competitor on U.S. Team A, having finished 42^nd in the competition this year.  Ultimately, Grossman not only describes the world of competitive puzzle solving, but he also helps to reveal why even average Americans are interested in puzzles as well.