Sunday, March 31, 2013

Assignment6: choices

        I could find Susan using the word 'zoology nerd' when she explains about what is needed to become a taxidermist. It is not a formal word, but she used it to tell "To make a good taxidermy, It is essential to have a lot of zoological knowledge." It's kind of weird because her form of writing is an article, and article normally uses more formal language, but the word she used is an informal word. Why did she made this kind of 'inappropriate word choice'? What I think of it is that, she wanted to express the same meaning as 'To be a taxidermist, we need a lot of interest and knowledge toward zoology' in a more friendly and concise way by compressing those words into two words, 'zoology nerd'. I felt much more comfortable to know what we need to become a taxidermist.
       I also found that author quoting people's actual saying when she explains about taxidermists. By using Taxidermists own saying, found in 'One of the champions in the whitetail division said to me."They're my babies."(page2)' I think that this makes author's message more lively and also makes readers to trust the informations mentioned in the article, which in other words, gives the ethos to the article. We can believe the informations given in the article more easily because it is which taxidermists said.
       I found author using numbers to boosts the attention of the readers in 'Taxidermy is now estimated to be a five-hundred-and-seventy-milion-dollar annual business,(page2)', which makes reader more interested in taxidermy by using money in explaining the size of taxidermy industry.

    And also she mentions a lot of informations through out the article. Susan talked about the history of taxidermy, taxidermists' gathering, their events where she went, specific representative artworks of taxidermies like Walker's Panda. It leads me to have more interest in taxidermy and help comprehending the works of people who make taxidermy. The one that made me interest most was example of Panda, making taxidermy of endangered animal. Making a vivid record of an endangered animal without killing them attracts me to see the positive side of taxidermy. Like this example, providing a lot of information about the topic which can be summarized as an overview of topic can lead to better understanding and interest of readers.

Assignment6

        The article has a tone of 'Journalistic figure'.  I noticed it when I was reading author's quotations of actual taxidermists which can be found on phrases like  'One of the champions in the whitetail division said to me."They are my babies."(page2)'. This kind of interview makes reader to trust the article more. Which is in other words, gives article a ethos. Every time author delivers the attitudes taxidermists have and telling which kinds of people taxidermists actually are. By hearing the saying of people working on those fields, It was easy for me to comprehend their passion, their hardships, etc.
         Not only that, she tries to informs the reader a lot about taxidermy, which is not familiar to many of us, by introducing the overview of it. Susan Orlean tells us about the history of taxidermy, their events, as well as its representative pieces of work.The one example I found is 'Taxidermy, the three dimensional representation of animals for permanent display, has been around since the eighteenth century(page1)', I didn't know even a minimal part of taxidermy before reading this part, however, I got to know the concept and able to infer its origin by reading this part and become interested to know more about taxidermy, which led me to dip into this article throughly. Like this this kinds of basic informations about the topic makes it easier for the readers to have more interest about the thing article is talking about. This is the typical style of an article explaining and introducing about some interesting topic. I can also say this article as 'A promotion material of Taxidermy' because it boosts reader's interest towards taxidermy and improves taxidermy's image as well as informs a lot about it. Susan wants readers to have positive image about the taxidermy, make them understand the attitudes of people who makes taxidermies,.
       I think the her intention to wrote this in the form of an article instead of other forms like personal travel sketch was to make the writing more reliable and trustworthy. If she delivers same informations about taxidermy with other more personal forms, it may have some friendliness, but loses the credibility instead. The form of an article enables the writers to use interviews they made, make people not to have doubt about the information which are mentioned in the article.
     
       

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Assignment5

   I think the author wrote this as her travel essay about the time when she went to 2003 World Taxidermy Championships. Orlean starts with describing what she saw there, like dozens of taxidermies , taxidermy equipments. Author continues writing about taxidermy's history. People starts to make taxidermy about 18c, by 1882 Society of American Taxidermists established, annual meeting  and scholarly reports were created and by many people think it's black arts, it temporarily daunted its strength, however about late 1960s its business started to seem more acceptable to people, and again the National Taxidermy Association formed, and many magazines treating taxidermy created. Susan keep telling about taxidermy skills, the factors needed to become a taxidermists, their attitude towards their works, and she introduce regional and global championship of it and websites about taxidermy. Not only that she explained about contenders of the contest, Walker's Panda- made by sewing two black bears.
   As I looked through the essay, this is the piece which introduces a lot about taxidermy. She may start writing the essay to show her experience, however , because it is so precise and contain a lot of informations about taxidermy, It seems like promotion material of taxidermy. I think author wants readers to know more about taxidermy, not just treat them as the thing which feels weird, but the piece of art created by a lot of people's passions to make 'LifeLike' features. I got to feel that as Orlean keep telling about taxidermist's attitude toward their objects. I could feel their seriousness, I got to know their effort to make more realistic figure of nature.

   I had bias about taxidermy before encountering this article. I thought they are weird, and they are only  a bad hobby of cruel poachers. However, I got to know the different aspects of taxidermy, which is not a toy of illegal hunters, but the piece of artwork created by many ardent people who are eager to accomplish one of their life goal, making the most 'LifeLike' objects. I think making the figures of pandas and other extinct or endangered animal is such a cool thing. By this fact, I'm started thinking about taxidermy's potential as keeping earth's history vividly. I think this is similar with author had expected readers to think about the taxidermy after reading the essay because I think unlike her former purpose was to describe her experience and information she got in the World Taxidermy Championship, she got to express her feelings about the attitude of taxidermists and interests in many attractive artifacts of taxidermy.