Plik prophesies dark consequences of Orion even at the expense of alienating a woman that he had been befriending. He concludes:
"'She can entertain no doubts of her rightness. None of you can. You dare not. I had better keep it in mind.' He lifted his glass." (p. 341)
But of how many people is that true?
A tutor at Lancaster University told a mature student that an essay that he had written was a rant. The mature student told me that he thought that the only difference between an "essay" and a "rant" was that between a rant that the tutor agreed with and a rant that the tutor disagreed with. However, I have written both essays and rants and do know the difference. An essay must ask a question, identify two or more possible answers, consider arguments in favor of each of the answers and finally present reasons for favoring one as against the other(s). A rant does none of this.
How many disagreements and arguments are rants, especially at present?
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Ha! Most political disagreements are rants, including even those I consider as coming from the better side of a dispute. Even tho I would consider rants of that kind to be more often true than not.
I like to read NATIONAL REVIEW, both printed and online. I think that publication presents many carefully thought out essays of the kind you described.
Ad astra! Sean
Personally I find rants -boring-, because I don't assume that I need to be "right" to fight someone. It just has to be expedient, as far as I'm concerned.
Our interests clash, I think I can bash their head and they don't (which is why they don't give in), so we fight.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That is what our disputes boils down to!
Ad astra! Sean
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