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Discuss the following passage from Daniel Harriss Celebrity Bodies. Focus on the writers
Chapter 11, Problem EXERCISE 2(choose chapter or problem)
Discuss the following passage from Daniel Harris’s “Celebrity Bodies.” Focus on the writer’s use of modifiers. Look carefully at the adjectives Harris uses to describe our fascination with celebrity. Look also at the qualifiers he uses — albeit, in turn, yet, at the same time — and consider how they suit the purpose of the essay.
Western culture affords us many ways of denigrating the beautiful, branding them stupid, egotistic, lonely, and unhappy, and our constant, self-abasing surveillance of their every move, our prurient eavesdropping on their private lives, from their sex tapes to the messages they leave on each other’s answering machines, may itself be a method of diminishing their psychological power. Much as Louis XIV used Versailles as a glittering cage to imprison restive nobles, so we have surrounded our idols with an impregnable phalanx of flashbulbs, herding them together in Hollywood, forcing them to live in a kind of internment camp, albeit one with all the amenities of a spa. The paparazzi, in turn, have become our watch dogs who never let them out of our sight, staking out their gyms, grocery stores, and nightclubs where they are forced to submit to our mean-spirited and yet, at the same time, obsequious espionage.
Questions & Answers
QUESTION:
Discuss the following passage from Daniel Harris’s “Celebrity Bodies.” Focus on the writer’s use of modifiers. Look carefully at the adjectives Harris uses to describe our fascination with celebrity. Look also at the qualifiers he uses — albeit, in turn, yet, at the same time — and consider how they suit the purpose of the essay.
Western culture affords us many ways of denigrating the beautiful, branding them stupid, egotistic, lonely, and unhappy, and our constant, self-abasing surveillance of their every move, our prurient eavesdropping on their private lives, from their sex tapes to the messages they leave on each other’s answering machines, may itself be a method of diminishing their psychological power. Much as Louis XIV used Versailles as a glittering cage to imprison restive nobles, so we have surrounded our idols with an impregnable phalanx of flashbulbs, herding them together in Hollywood, forcing them to live in a kind of internment camp, albeit one with all the amenities of a spa. The paparazzi, in turn, have become our watch dogs who never let them out of our sight, staking out their gyms, grocery stores, and nightclubs where they are forced to submit to our mean-spirited and yet, at the same time, obsequious espionage.
ANSWER:Step 1 of 3
Focus on Harris' use of modifiers.
Harris’ essay, at large, constitutes modifiers that one does not easily summon or regularly use. Not only does his diction exude an air of superiority with words like “denigrating” and “prurient” but it also flaunts an indubitable sense of elegance that stages a grandiose visual image that elevates one’s imagination. There’s almost a rhythm in the way he employs a variety of modifiers from adjectives to strong verbs.