TOW 28 Who Killed the Electric Car

Who Killed the Electric Car is a documentary by Chris Paine about the disappearance of the electric car from the American marketplace.  The film references a time, in the ‘90s, mainly in California, where electric cars started to be sold.  Although this technology may seem advanced even now, the film claims that it was a viable technology in the 20^th century and that, if not for some suspects, it could have truly thrived.  This film documents the failures of some parties and the sabotage of others over the years on EV model cars.  The film is meant to be a way to create awareness for the ability of the electric car while at the same time criticizing those who limited its advances.  It does this mainly through the use of expert and first hand point of views along with the dehumanization of the other side to prompt a similar reaction by their audience.

            One of the main contributors to the author’s perspective is that of others.  The filmmakers picked many likeminded and expert speakers on the topic and used them to influence viewers.  Through these people, many of whom drove or had some direct involvement with electric cars, Paine tries to paint the picture that the electric car was a commonly beloved piece of technology and that there was great support for it.  He tries to stir his audience and get their emotional response to side with these electric car sympathizers, and to rally them against those against the electric car.  Paine also varies his speakers using celebrities, government personnel and even simply average people.  This allows for a more diverse appeal.  This means that he can hit his audience from many different angles.  From the lenses of the driver to the legislator to the scientist to the celebrity the viewer gets everyone’s point of view and everyone seems to be in favor of the electric car.  The only people who seem not to be represented are those from the car and oil companies.

            One strategy that the director uses to dehumanize the companies is essentially a form of metonymy.  Instead of directly referencing people or having people as those being condemned in the death of the electric car the filmmakers tactically blame people larger organizations such as GM and the US government.  This pawns off the blame and nullifies the human feel and the sympathy that more specific blame may have garnered.  This allows makes it harder for the audience to see these bodies as something that could have had a positive intent because they are not portrayed like the sympathizers as people with feelings and opinions, but as money hungry companies that do not care what they do unless it turns a profit. 

            In all the human aspect plays a large role in this film.  The majority of the film is drawn from the testimonials of people who have direct relations to the topic, and what isn’t is mainly the narration of synthesis of what those first hand accounts are saying.  As a drastically different take as compared to the portrayal of the opposing side, the human aspect of the electric car is a much more openly absorbed idea than that of the dehumanized picture of the murderer of the electric car.

TOW 27

For the first two marking periods my TOWs were subpar.  I think this is due to the fact that I would simply write them to get them done and not for the purpose of practicing them.  At first I tried to follow the guidelines that you handed out.  I would write a TOW while going down the list checking off what I did.  Then, when I started to realize you were not as thorough with your checking of our TOWs my work started to sag even more.  I tried to write posts which barely covered the word restrictions and had little skill involved.  I just threw as many words on the page as possible and had little point behind them.  Since the third marking period however I have improved.  The threat of having one pulled and looked at made me actually try lest one of my poor attempts be pulled.  Also, at that point I realized what you wanted.  I realized that you wanted an actual mini essay and I tried to do that.  Since we did fairly little TOWs after that point I did not really grow.  Doing TOWs did help me master the ability of finding a rhetorical device from nothing, but there are still many areas where I am lacking.  I still barely know the rhetorical devices and my essays are often formulaic.  To be honest I really did not benefit from these assignments but that is not from the assignments but from my personal work ethic.  I think though it may be beneficial to students to make them due less often and to actually grade them more.  This would make them seem like less of a tedious task to just get done and more of an actual task to get better.  Also the threat of grading some of them may spur more students to put in the work to get a good grade.

TOW 27

One of the most famous paintings of all time might have gotten even better. Turns out, according to an article by the Daily Mail, the Mona Lisa may have been Da Vinci’s try at 3-D art.  The Mona Lisa has a much less known cousin housed in a Spanish museum.  In fact an article by Kieran Corcoran and Sophie Jane Evans tells the details of how Da Vinci may have gone so far as to have hid in technology that would not be invented for many centuries under everyone’s noses.  In their article Corcoran and Evans uses some specific techniques to get their points across.  One of the stronger was the ethos they tried to convey.  There were a couple of tactics that went into this objective.  The first of which was the usage of quotes.  Throughout their article Evans and Corcoran sprinkle in many small quotes as a way of making them sound more official and knowledgeable while at the same time cutting straight to the chase.  These quotes offer up many positives, from the fact that it leads them in the right direction with their articles to the fact that it offers a little separation between them and the opinion.  A second technique, which they used, which was helpful was the assistance of pictures.  The writers added in some pictures of both paintings along with some diagrams.  The pictures helped to emphasize the ideas that they were promoting, the fat that the pictures made each other look deeper and more 3-D like.  Also the writers used diagrams with legos.  This helped for the audience’s understanding but lowered the ethos of the story.  With all of those specialized techniques combined it is easy to understand what the article is trying to explain.  The Mona Lisa may have been an attempt at 3-D but even if not it’s still the Mona Lisa