Preliminary Thesis Statement

As I indicated in a previous post, the topic for my English 505 research paper is the collapse of the World Trade Center.

Last night I watched a DVD titled World Trade Center: Anatomy of the Collapse (The Learning Channel, 2002). The filmmakers did a great job of explaining how the towers were designed and built, and used a lot of stock footage and computer simulations of the construction process. They also interviewed the project's lead structural engineer, Leslie E. Robertson, who is now a little old guy who seemed at the time of filming to be having a hard time accepting the tragedy of the WTC's collapse. For example, he kept referring to the towers in the present tense and would every so often have to stop and correct himself. He didn't seem to want to accept responsibility for the collapse, and he wouldn't even admit to feeling guilty (at least in so many words), but it was evident that he was devastated by it.

From other reading this week I learned that the WTC's architect, Minoru Yamasaki, was a first-generation Japanese American who grew up in the Seattle area but founded his firm in Birmingham, Michigan in the 1950s. Among his portfolio was the 30-story Michigan Consolidated Gas building in downtown Detroit, where there used to be a fine dining restaurant called the Top of the Flame. My boyfriend and I went there for dinner after my senior prom. One of the things I remember about it was the little flutter in the tummy I got sitting at a table right next to the floor-to-ceiling windows. It's ironic that Mr. Yamasaki -- who was afraid of heights -- designed buildings that must have given him the heebie-jeebies...but I digress.

I've done enough research to compose this preliminary thesis statement: The innovative design and engineering processes used to create the World Trade Center resulted in buildings that were taller, less expensive to build, and more profitable to rent than any that had come before. But the "tube" design, lightweight materials and untested construction techniques called for by the new technology failed completely after the impact of the aircraft. The structural integrity of the towers was destroyed, which made their collapse inevitable.

I'll let this simmer for a couple of days, and expand upon it in my next post. I may whittle the topic down a bit to focus on the building and safety codes that were in effect at the time the project was proposed, but I need to do more research first.

Brainstorming and Censorship

After reading chapter five of Professor Krause's The Process of ResearchWriting, I felt I had to second his instruction to avoid self-censorship during the topic brainstorming process.

Although I have never heard this advice in an academic setting, it's a rule I have used professionally for years when needing to come up with a name, tag line, theme, etc. My colleagues and I gather around a white board, with one person serving as scribe. We call out whatever comes into our minds and the scribe writes down every thought, no matter how silly it may seem at the time. Later, when we move into the weeding out phase, we're often surprised at how good some of the "silly" ideas are.

Blogging from Bellaire

The foliage is gorgeous in northern Michigan this weekend, and judging from the crowds and traffic, there are loads of people from downstate who are here enjoying the scenery along with us. Here's a photo I took this morning of the 18th hole of the Hawk's Eye golf course in Bellaire (where our condo is), the charming little village that's home to Shanty Creek and Schuss Mountain.

Yesterday was my birthday, which is one of the reasons we're up north. It's none of your business which birthday it was, but let's just say that if it weren't for the pitiful state of the economy, I'd have retirement in my sights within a decade or so. Sigh. Anyway, I've been doing some preliminary research on the World Trade Center's building and safety codes, my chosen topic for my English 505 paper, and am pleased to find that there's lots of information available. In addition to countless online articles, I found a half-dozen books that I was able to reserve at my local library. I'm looking forward to digging into the material and learning about the kinds of back-room deals that preceded the WTC's approval.

My blog for today...

...is about the grief I've experienced reading Book 2 of Aristotle's On Rhetoric! I've been a reader since I was four years old, but much of this makes my head hurt. I shared it with Jennifer, a colleague at work who has two master's degrees in communications, and her head is now hurting too.

I'm hoping that our class discussion this evening will help to clarify some of the more difficult passages.

Finally, a Thesis Topic

I've been thinking a lot about my topic and have even done quite a bit of preliminary research on a couple of my ideas, but just this week it occurred to me that all of the topics I've been considering are more political than scientific or technological in nature. Given that the focus of the course is The Rhetoric of Science and Technology, I thought I'd better come up with something that more closely linked to what we're studying. :-)

Several months ago I read a book titled 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive the Twin Towers by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn. It had a great description of how the the architects and builders got around the safety codes that were in effect at the time. I'd like to do my paper on this topic, if possible.

If this one isn't approved, here are some other ideas I have:

• Thalidomide, a drug that was used by some pregnant women during the late 1950s and early 1960s to treat morning sickness. About 10,000 women in Europe and Africa who took the drug in early pregnancy gave birth to children with severe birth defects such as missing or shortened limbs. Although thalidomide was not prescribed or sold for decades, in 1998 the FDA approved its use for the treatment of a form of leprosy.
• The Swine Flue vaccine. In 1976 President Gerald Ford allocated $135 million to vaccinate Americans against what was feared to be a reincarnation of the Spanish Flu that killed as many as 100 million people worldwide in 1918/19. The program was halted when it was discovered that the risk of developing Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare, usually reversible but occasionally fatal form of paralysis, was seven times higher in people who received the vaccine.
• The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which marked the end of World War II, were the only offensive detonations of nuclear weapons to date. The bombs killed as many as 220,000 people during the next four months, and thousands more died afterward from exposure to radiation. The issue that has divided scholars ever since is whether using the bomb was necessary for the U.S. to achieve victory over Japan.

A Summary of Aristotle's On Rhetoric, Book 1, Chapter 8

I wrote this for tonight's class discussion, but I thought it might be helpful to others so it's going to be my blog content for this date.

According to Aristotle, understanding various forms of government (constitutions) and the uses / advantages of each is essential to “the ability to persuade and give good advice,” and thus essential to rhetoric.

The four forms of constitution identified by Aristotle are:

• Democracy, or rule by the majority. (Ancient Greece operated under a democratic form of government, but this doesn’t mean that everyone had equal rights. Theoretically, all citizens were equal and equally qualified to participate in government, but women, slaves, resident foreigners and even undesirable free men were excluded.) Under democratic rule offices are distributed by lot, and the “end” or objective of democracy is freedom.
• Oligarchy, or rule by the minority. (To qualify, an individual must own a minimum of ratable property (that which is capable of being appraised, which serves to keep the number of the governing elite low.) Under oligarchic rule offices are distributed on the basis of ownership of property, and the end of oligarchy is wealth.
• Aristocracy, or rule by “best” individuals or small privileged class believed to be superior. (Only those with high birth, inherited wealth and an understanding of the culture are permitted to participate; the nouveau riche are not welcome.) Under aristocratic rule offices are distributed based on education that is “laid down by law,” and the ends of aristocracy are education and preserving legal traditions.
• Monarchy, or rule by a single person who is sovereign over all. (This form can be orderly or tyrannical, depending on the individual.) The end of monarchy is self-preservation.

A government’s central authority or decision-making element is separate from, but equally important to, its constitution, and therefore reflects the constitution’s objective. For example, the decision-making body in an oligarchic form of government will consist of the wealthiest members of its society.

Aristotle believed that each of the four forms of government produces a distinctive type of rhetorician, and that understanding an individual’s rhetoric is enhanced by understanding the form of government under which he lives. This was especially significant to him, because he believed that speech is driven by character: “…we believe the speaker through his being a certain kind of person….”