The
blog post “I Hate e-readers” is a satirical comparison of e-readers to “real”
books. The piece uses heavy sarcasm, profanity, and some other offensive
language. The author does not include
their name in their “About” but I will refer to him from this point on as Will
because of the name of his blog (The Completely Works of William Shakespeare). He appears to be very cynical and, based on
the other posts he’s made, is not shy about approaching controversial topics
such as terrorism in the Middle East and racist jokes. I assume he is male because of the comment he
has posted at the top of the post (I won’t repeat it). I consider him qualified to write on this
topic because it is merely about personal preference and you would be
hard-pressed to find someone not qualified to have an opinion. The purpose is to
discuss why the e-reader—specifically the Kindle—is inferior to the written
word. Will wrote this piece in the
context of a society being revolutionized by e-readers. As people continue to buy newer and newer Kindles
and Nooks he feels that is important to remind people that books are infinitely
superior. His intended audience was
people who both like and hate the e-readers.
I think it appealed more to those who don’t like the e-reader because it denounces them. It could also, however, be interpreted as a
text meant for people who do like the e-reader in an attempt to sway them
towards having a new opinion. The two
tools used the most in this text are humor and ethos. As a sub-category, diction helps to establish
humor and pathos (this case he appealed to humor). Several times throughout this post he
utilizes humor with language like “the day my
world shatters because I can’t consult my National Geographic Illustrated Atlas Of Space on the
cross-town bus, I’ve officially got bigger problems” and “The Kindle boasts a screen that ‘reads like real paper
without glare, even in bright sunlight’. Y’know what else reads like real
paper? Paper.” Humor did
help him achieve his purpose because it takes the edge off of what sometimes
errs to very aggressive language. An
example of where he used ethos was by listing the value of books and the Kindle
and defending both sides. This aided Will because, instead of making up
petty reasons for while the Kindle is bad, he effectively took the arguments
the opposing side would have and refuted them.
Another example of ethos is the title of his blog “The Complete Works of
William Shakespeare.” Unless Will was
being pretentious, this establishes him as someone who not only likes to read
but someone who reads text of considerable value.
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