Category: Nathan Ryan Reeves

The concept of a person’s gaze is an interesting subject to read about when thinking about the context of travel. “The Tourist Gaze” is the idea that a tourist will have a certain viewpoint of an object or landmark or what-have-you, and that the gaze is so much different compared to a local. From an anecdotal standpoint, the Washington monument and any other tourist attraction here feels a lot normal, and that from living in the district for over a year I have lost that tourist gaze for the things I saw once every 5 years or so.

Although, I would say that the monuments do not need any introduction to tourists since that is what they are here to see. However, each of the monuments does have introductions to them, right outside or right on them, showing the significance of the monument. These are for the tourist to pick up on and be given significance. Urry writes about these signs saying

“There are actual signs that indicate that some other object has remarkable properties even if visually it appears not to be so…”

, which hints at the idea of what exactly the tourist gaze is.

The gaze has to be incited by something that is distinctive to be gazed upon, but, does that apply to everything, and what if something catches you off guard and you gaze upon it because you don’t know what it is. Apart from that, Urry says that collective signs and activities that can distinguish itself from a mundane experience then the experience can hold much more importance.

My thoughts on this are that the concept of the gaze is important because it is what gives humans an appreciation for what they are looking at. The gaze can instill an experience that makes the place or view relevant. I might be going in circles by saying, “why does this happen”, and “can it happen without certain circumstances” (like when lacking a sign, signal, or if you get the gaze from something that isn’t the monument). Or whether the small things can also have a gaze to it from tourists. As someone that looks at the little things and does not take too many pictures when admiring a view, I’m more or less thinking about what makes the environment or the experience possible.

Urry also touches on this thought saying that the concept of landscape is “important for both history and art”, but also says that it’s not a simple question of the physical environment rather the creation of visual consumption and that the gaze has largely to be affected by pleasure and tourism. Just to state that the gaze may just have come from the idea of tourism.

But the most interesting part that comes from this reading is the table or chart on the last couple of pages that identifies the type of gaze, with the theme of the gaze. For instance, romantic, collective, spectatorial, environmental, and anthropological, which all have different gazes and contexts to them. So maybe, the question about what goes into the gaze is special because there is a definitive answer, but the context is what makes the experience so special.

I am only unsure and wary about this post being that I read the readings and yet, I am still confused about how to write on what I want to write, so this is my second non-playful response to the readings and only due to ignorance. Even though I read the readings and wanted to be taking the playful descriptive approach and use the skill in practice, I feel as elaborating and writing on the concept would be beneficial.

The idea of the “Rhetorical Situation” is that writing in a way that can evoke emotion by using descriptive language, and using descriptive language with actions can bind all of that together to make one descriptive rhetorical situation in a writing. It uses writing skills to develop a scene or situation with the “presence of events, persons, or objects”, and using those objects to suggest a theme, (Bitzer, 1992). For example, if someone says that there is a dangerous situation, it is implied that there is an object or subject that can harm them, or that if something is embarrassing in a situation it should feel tense in the context of the situation.

It is not only used in the context of the situation but to make a convincing response with imagery and objects in the scene or situation. For instance, Bronislaw Malinow describes a fisherman in “The Rhetorical Situation”, quoted by Bitzer,

“The canoes glide slowly and noiselessly, punted by men especially good at this task and always used for it. Other experts who know the bottom of the lagoon … are on the look-out for fish. . .. Customary signs, or sounds or words are uttered”, (Bitzer, 1992).

While this is a short example from a bigger passage you can still see the descriptive language and punctuation from the situation. Like the canoes “gliding slowly and noiselessly”, and that there are customary “signs”, “sounds”, and words “uttered” by the fish in the lagoon alone.

In short, “Rhetorical Situation” is the idea and skill of using rhetoric and descriptive writing to develop a situation or scene by binding together descriptive words and actions to make a full picture scene with words. This can make scenes in writing to develop emotions like anger, nervousness, happiness, and make scenes more colorful than they would be without the descriptive language.

I am only unsure and wary about this post being that I read the readings and yet, I am still confused about how to write on what I want to write, so this is my second non-playful response to the readings and only due to ignorance. Even though I read the readings and wanted to be taking the playful descriptive approach and use the skill in practice, I feel as elaborating and writing on the concept would be beneficial.

The idea of the “Rhetorical Situation” is that writing in a way that can evoke emotion by using descriptive language, and using descriptive language with actions can bind all of that together to make one descriptive rhetorical situation in a writing. It uses writing skills to develop a scene or situation with the “presence of events, persons, or objects”, and using those objects to suggest a theme, (Bitzer, 1992). For example, if someone says that there is a dangerous situation, it is implied that there is an object or subject that can harm them, or that if something is embarrassing in a situation it should feel tense in the context of the situation.

It is not only used in the context of the situation but to make a convincing response with imagery and objects in the scene or situation. For instance, Bronislaw Malinow describes a fisherman in “The Rhetorical Situation”, quoted by Bitzer,

“The canoes glide slowly and noiselessly, punted by men especially good at this task and always used for it. Other experts who know the bottom of the lagoon … are on the look-out for fish. . .. Customary signs, or sounds or words are uttered”, (Bitzer, 1992).

While this is a short example from a bigger passage you can still see the descriptive language and punctuation from the situation. Like the canoes “gliding slowly and noiselessly”, and that there are customary “signs”, “sounds”, and words “uttered” by the fish in the lagoon alone.

In short, “Rhetorical Situation” is the idea and skill of using rhetoric and descriptive writing to develop a situation or scene by binding together descriptive words and actions to make a full picture scene with words. This can make scenes in writing to develop emotions like anger, nervousness, happiness, and make scenes more colorful than they would be without the descriptive language.