peter ramus is my new best friend! again we are confronted with sass, and again, i love it. the way he addresses those he argues against is, of course, severely arrogant. it is also pretty hilarious.
"O Quintilian, although you say that moral virtue fashions good, respectable, and praiseworthy followers, nevertheless you do not give sufficient thought to what you say... For the future I expect better words than this, or you should think up better advice" (686). Woo! a direct address from ramus to q. seems so harsh. the "o" is my favorite part, and made me laugh out loud, partly because that is how i approach texts (as if i'm in conversation with them), but also partly because i agree with him.
ramus argues that the rhetorician does not have to be a "good" person, and i tend to agree here. what ramus refers to as q's "worthless ideas" sometimes seem just as useless to me. rhetoric is not a moral virtue. i stand by this.
Update from November 2: what would Julian think about this? does she consider herself involved in a kind of rhetoric? i think for her, the act of creating a story for herself and for women within christianity (in other words, the act of engaging in the rhetoric) IS a virtuous experience. it is how she gets closer to god, AND how she gets her point across. Revelations of Divine Love is rhetoric as moral virtue. the good woman speaking well. hm.
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