TOW #10 Gold's Gym Advertisement (Visual)

     Gold's Gym is a well known and nationally recognized American gym that has been around for about 50 years, first opening its doors to the public in May of 1965. To celebrate its successful achievement in longevity, and ultimately to showcase their "legacy of strength", Gold's Gym began its "growing stronger together" campaign in the beginning of 2015. This campaign focused primarily on the introduction of the gym to new clients and began a strong push for new members. As a result of this new campaign the following ad was published in many fitness magazines across the nation. The simplicity of this advertisement is what makes it so successful, utilizing strong contrasting colors and a juxtaposition of contrasting images to depict the effect of their gym in hopes of compelling new people to join. 

      The most eye catching part of this image is the use of bold black letters across a bright yellow backdrop. These colors are not only successful in drawing in attention due to their brightness, but also in serving as an extension of their own product since black and yellow are the colors of the gym. Due to the intensity of these colors, this ad immediately stands out and leaves a lasting impression for readers. However, the most eye catching, and relevant to the point of the ad is the use of contrasting images to represent letters. The way that the two beginning images are positioned makes them appear to take an "A" shape, and because of this, spell the word "FAT" in bold letters. This word corresponds to the emotional response brought forth when viewing the two images of overweight men and brings an ultimately negative connotation to the entire idea. By contrast, the bottom image not only displays a man who is obviously in better shape, but is positioned in such a way so that his body appears to make an "I" shape. With this, the last word appears to be "FIT" rather than "FAT". It this way, the ad implicitly showcases the the positive effects of the gym, making a man (and his corresponding word) go from fat to fit. 

TOW #9: Dumb Kids' Class

         Mark Bowden, a veteran writer for the monthly journal The Atlantic, often focuses his writing on the societal repercussions -- or possible repercussions --  of various political decisions within the country. His essay, Dumb Kids' Class, is no exception to this tradition. Following the presidential consideration of the 'No Child Left Behind' policy by the Obama administration (one which ultimately resulted in no change) Bowden published this article giving a unique perspective to education in this country. Telling of his early childhood in which he was placed in the so-called "dumb classes" before being promoted to the higher level classes, Bowden explores the idea of how early influences affect how children view themselves in the future. Through a satirical description of his time spent in the "dumb" class, strongly facilitated by his use of ironic statements, Bowden intends to show his audience -- the voting class citizen of America who could have a say in the consideration of the policy (at least theoretically) -- that categorizing children at an early age can be dangerous as it is something which remains with the child for life and often results in a parochial outlook toward ones abilities.
          By utilizing ironic statements to describe his childhood experience Mark Bowden successfully creates a humorous tone to his article, accentuating his idea that even with good intentions, the categorizing of students harbors negative results. Bowden begins this style with his description of "the invaluable lessons of the dumb classes" (45) which consisted of avoiding the "spit pit" (44) and how to draw blood without too much injury to yourself. By describing such lessons as "invaluable" and essentially the most important to such a class, Bowden shows how little emphasis was placed on a group of children who were considered academically inept. Bowden directly addresses this fact, stating that "children are exquisitely attuned to the way adults size them up, so there was never any mystery about where anyone stood" (30). In this way, he explains that it is these influences which ultimately lead to children who do not see any more worth than where they were placed. Most powerfully, and what brings the most success to his article, is his use of a similar ironic statement at the end, stating "It’s well and good to enjoy the world’s esteem, I learned, but better still to be underestimated" (54). This ending concludes his idea with the final thought that many children placed in these "dumb classes" are not expected to do anything exceedingly important in the future, and this idea is what leads them down that path precisely.

IRB Intro #2: The Elegant Universe

For my second independent reading I decided to read, The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. As far as subject descriptions go, the title itself is pretty self-explanatory. This book details the many misconceptions and misunderstandings regarding the current explanation for the happens of the universe -- known as String Theory. With this book author Brian Greene attempts to relate this scientific theory to the human struggle and desire to find what he describes as an "ultimate theory". It was this aspect that truly drew me in to the book. It is not simply a study of the universe, but rather, of the human beings that live within it.

TOW #8 Survival of the Sickest pt. 2 (IRB)

              In completion of Survival of the Sickest, it becomes clear that the initial purpose revealed through the first few chapters is indeed the primary purpose of the book in its entirety. As previously mentioned in an earlier post, Dr. Sharon Moalem's goal in writing such a text is to change the way people view diseases and essentially eradicate the parochial views that correlate with such ideas. To do so, Moalem examines the causes of many common diseases (the latter part of the book dedicated to the diabetes and anemia), tracing their origins and consequently formulating probable reasons for their prevalence to this day. Such an idea that detrimental ailments could somehow prove to be helpful for survival requires an entire reversal of mindset for most individuals. This, in the truest sense, is Moalem's objective. In causing a reconsideration of ideas that many consider "obvious" Moalem extends his message to a further audience -- those outside the medical field.
               The previous post identified appeals to logo, satirical humor and simple diction as Dr. Sharon Moalem's successful techniques in writing. However, after finishing the book, it became obvious that the actual art in writing factored into the success of the purpose. Examples of this "art" in language are seen in his use of repetition and isolation of paragraphs. Toward the end of the book, Moalem utilizes repetition of the phrase "we will know". In repeating this phrase, Moalem successfully gives strength to the meaning of the idea of knowledge. Knowledge is one of the primary motifs present in the book. It is used to facilitate the idea that knowledge is responsible for the outlook of life. In addition, his separation of his paragraph such as "this is true" at the end of his chapters adds emphasis and meaning to his ideals. In this way, Dr. Sharon Moalem's book was extremely successful in accomplishing his purpose.