Do you care about style ?

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duszek
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Do you care about style ?

Post by duszek »

In the antiquity style concerned the effects of speech and was discussed in the section of rhetoric and persuasion.

Does style mean a lot to you today ?
Impenitent
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Re: Do you care about style ?

Post by Impenitent »

only when skateboarding

-Imp
EchoesOfTheHorizon
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Re: Do you care about style ?

Post by EchoesOfTheHorizon »

I adjust my style to how I look. I'm big and hairy, so don't try to be too flamboyant in my clothing or speech.

When I write down a word I like that is able to express a new concept, I will often times look through a thesaurus or google it, looking for a more Anglo-Saxon word. Sometimes I will type up a two to four line poem that rhymes with it, or copy it exactly to space over and over again on a page or two of notebook paper over and over again in a partial sentence, letting it sink in. If I know the word written, but never heard it spoken, I will rarely say it, until I hear it spoken.... then I will repeat it a few times. My brain never learned how to process letters into sounds properly that way, so I am off every time.... I never get the damn pattern right.

I'm also a extremely generic dresser. I own three pairs of cargo shorts, and mostly all grey tee shirts. I was asked to get some other colors involved, so I added black t shirts too, to show I have spunk. I wear it in the summer, and even printed some grey tee shirts with my name and profession.

Now it is winter, I've had to expand my clothing. My older dress shirts have been outgrown and given away, so I now own three. I bought one at a new store in my area, Duluth Trading Company, along with two pairs of pants (their firemen pants) with suspenders. I got two other dress shirts as well. All three are slightly flamboyant, and almost gives me a sense of style, if only the plaid pattern wasn't so boring and uninspiring. Makes me look like a dumb Ohio potaro farmer, which is exactly the look I'm going for, cause cops never bother dumb Ohio potaro farmers. I shit you not, that is literally what I aimed for, looking in the mirror. Some of the shirts made me look too cool, rejected them.

I have a lame looking green backpack, able to hold a sleeping bag if needed, but never do. I also have a dead looking worn out green hat, I bought from a Walmart, no markings or brand names on it. Matches the backpack, has a forested look to it. One of my shirts are green, and goes with it.

I also have for cold weather, a all black jacket, with army armored gloves, and a army hat in black designed to keep the rain and snow off me. I have a $340 pair of Oakley glasses, prescription, I use as safety glasses as well, wear with the combo. My shows are new balance, cross country, non descript, blue. Got to buy some black pants so I can go full ninja, and paint my crowbar black here (all ready have black non-skid paint).

Goal is at night, to be in complete black incase I gotta work with police, but during the day look like the most harmless and trustworthy potato farmer ever. I gotta convince two very different kinds of people so my looks then.

Due to my Vitiligo, I grew a beard to cover my spots. It is patterned and kept at a height just enough to look tamed, but on the edge of growing wild. This way, if I head to a philosophy group to discuss something (not planning on doing that for a few months) I can just grab a more flamboyant red shirt, and have it pass as a intellectual beard (might need a slight trimming) or I can put my more military gear on and look fucking scary as shit. Goal is to be intimidating in one situation, eccentric and open in the other. I gotta get a new dress jacket too now that I think of it, jeans too. I'll only use that for these groups.

In San Francisco, that's how I dressed, oftentimes with cuff shirts, cause that's what cops liked people wearing, and they never bothered me. I looked like a James Bond clone. I had wild shirts, but still dress ones, under a jacket, sometimes I had a tie dye undershirt, a trend of rebellion I started in the army (and Sponge Bob underwear. Imagine going on a unit deployment to another base for training, and they see a soldier in those two and a robe heading to the bathroom in flip flops)

In Hawaii, I wore only atrocious Hawaiian shirts, tee shirts underneath, and shorts. Always the same kind of shoes, except in San Francsico I had to go with fancier but more useless leather shoes, but when I went on my hikes to rebuild my leg, went with the new balance.

I tailor my clothes to my environment. I do the same with my speech. I also have cut down on how much I talk, under the same principles that old Rocky Balboa had, in hitting less, but hitting hard. I'm typing, I type at the speed I type, and make absolutely no effort to make it in a style or length anyone wants or likes, tough shit. Goal is understandable but informative, if you care for the facts, of not, skip ahead. I typically stick to the rhetorical style of a narrator, not because I can't do otherwise, but rather I spend most of my time doing otherwise, in study, and find speech involves a different mode in which I must convince, in flowing, moving forms. So I write on forums generally as I speak. Rarely graphs or formulas, unless they are expressed in smooth spoken word. Sometimes strong emotion, sometimes a little, other times none at all. On rare occasion for certain personalities unable to break out of modular formulas in thinking and speech, I will do the same. It sends a weird signal I think to others, when I switch, so I don't typically. I'm resistant on offering two different styles of English, one for one type of people, and a different kind for another, I try to make just one language. A lot of black people around where I live have two kinds of English. I keep to one. If I'm not careful, I can start talking like the architect from the matrix, so really make a effort for Anglo Saxon roots, common speech, less and less as time goes by spoken.
EchoesOfTheHorizon
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Re: Do you care about style ?

Post by EchoesOfTheHorizon »

I should note I got down to neighing but a pair of ripped up shorts for my clothing in Hawaii. Wasn't for very long, but was literally all I had for a while in terms of possessions. Wasn't interested in style then.
bobevenson
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Re: Do you care about style ?

Post by bobevenson »

Gustave Flaubert, the author of Madame Bovary, thought that style in itself is the absolute manner of seeing things:
An English professor at Writer's Digest referred to "The Ouzo Prophecy" by saying, "I read your paper, reread it, and then read it again. The average person wouldn't know what you're talking about, what the point is, what you're trying to say." He then compared the paper to a letter that Gustave Flaubert, the author of Madame Bovary, wrote to Louise Colet on January 16, 1852, "What seems to me ideal, that which I would like to achieve, is a book about nothing, a book having no ties to that which lies outside it, but which holds itself together through the internal force of its style, like the Earth floating in space of its own accord, a book almost entirely without a subject, or at least the subject of which would be nearly invisible, if that were possible. The most beautiful works are those that make use of the least material. It is for this reason that there are neither worthy subjects nor unworthy ones, and one might establish, as a kind of axiom—seeing the matter from the point of view of pure Art—that there is in fact no subject, style being in itself the absolute manner of seeing things." The professor believed I may have virtually achieved Flaubert's dream by saying, "Your paper is something, but it's only something, and I reluctantly confess, I'm not at all certain what that something is."
duszek
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Re: Do you care about style ?

Post by duszek »

Bob Evenson:

There is no subject in literature, only style.

is the essence of your quote, for which I thank you.

This view strikes me as somewhat extreme.

From an opposing view one might say:

The subject of an adulterous wife was treated in a different style by Flaubert, Tolstoy, Fontane and many other writers.
duszek
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Re: Do you care about style ?

Post by duszek »

EchoesOfTheHorizon wrote: Sun Nov 05, 2017 8:56 pm I should note I got down to neighing but a pair of ripped up shorts for my clothing in Hawaii. Wasn't for very long, but was literally all I had for a while in terms of possessions. Wasn't interested in style then.
Walking around naked is also a style, I would say. Nudists practice it for a reason.
EchoesOfTheHorizon
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Re: Do you care about style ?

Post by EchoesOfTheHorizon »

I was trapped on the side of Diamondhead for a while till I made my way back to Waimanelo, via Hawaii Kia. No fun going barefoot. All because I lost my keys to my storage bin, and then had my hiding place for my night ruck stolen by a tweaker. I did maintain a Barnes and Noble nook for a while, but that broke. Ended up just spending time on the beach (believe it or not, unusual for me, as I was usually in the library, working, or on a mandatory rehabilitation hike for my leg, rebuilding it).

I mostly avoided people. Getting down off Diamondhead into the beach area is simple enough, but getting to waimanelo was hell. Lots of backtrails once there, jungle to stay in, shade. Was able to require some old clothing of mine from a place I used to work at.

Nothing at all is styling when you are sunburnt, dirty, exposed and wet after a rainstorm. I took my cues how to dress when hosting a philosophy group from a previous leader of a group on the mainland, dressed casual yet respectable, and didn't feel comfortable being involved with that sort of organization while looking so deranged. Still had the army instincts to shave constantly, and look clean. It doesn't go away instantly, holds on like a stubborn phantom limb.

Ironically it was after that experience that I could reduce my outfit to nearly nothing and feel comfortable looking kinda shitty. But that isn't a good look for modern discourse. I try to fit my looks to the audience, to maximum effect.
Nick_A
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Re: Do you care about style ?

Post by Nick_A »

duszek wrote: Sun Nov 05, 2017 10:02 am In the antiquity style concerned the effects of speech and was discussed in the section of rhetoric and persuasion.

Does style mean a lot to you today ?
Quality female rump is always attractive to me but when adorned stylishly is even better. These advances in style are a revealing sign of human progress
duszek
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Re: Do you care about style ?

Post by duszek »

This was visual style, which most people focus on.

But how about the vocal style ?
Does the tone of your voice have a style ?
duszek
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Re: Do you care about style ?

Post by duszek »

It makes a difference whether someone speaks fast and swallows some sounds on the way or speaks in a celebrating way, slowly and joyously.
Nick_A
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Re: Do you care about style ?

Post by Nick_A »

duszek wrote: Mon Nov 27, 2017 5:01 pm It makes a difference whether someone speaks fast and swallows some sounds on the way or speaks in a celebrating way, slowly and joyously.
Of course. It is learned at a very early age by copying those around you. Politicians are trained to be able to adopt the style appropriate for their agenda and actors must know what style suits the role they must play.

As a man I've noticed how the vocal style of women can change according to their mood. How such a sweet alluring sound can turn into its opposite at a moments notice is truly amazing.
duszek
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Re: Do you care about style ?

Post by duszek »

How about this element of style:

Many men have the habit of repeating a word many times before they proceed with their utterance.
It sounds like a disk that stopped turning and needs a push.

What is it good for ?
One idea: they will not let anyone say anything in between, they pretend that they are ready to continue while in reality they are not ready, they search for the next word.

They allow themselves to get on the listener´s nerves, as far as I am concerned.

Or do they display some kind of humbleness or vulnerability ?
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-1-
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Re: Do you care about style ?

Post by -1- »

Style also means a writing instrument, in Ancient Greek. Or in some other ancient language.

For style of speech. Hm. I should pay more attention to how I speak. I am easily spoken over, you know, I start a story or a sentence, and by the time I say the third word, someone else starts another story and I shut up.

This obviously can't happen on forums. Hence, I've become a forum monkey. It's easier to be heard here, because nobody will interrupt your flow of text.
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