ENGL 6040: Stormer Keynote (SP22)

(post)
The end is nigh.
The end is now.
The end was already.
“Accident” (Wombo)

(post) reading
rhetoric by accident
“
Affection (the condition of being affected) is a
nonnegotiable feature of existence, although
how, when, where, and why it occurs or what
elicits it varies perpetually (Stormer 355).
(post)

(post) reading
rhetoric by accident
“
Affect, immediate and independent of causal
efficacy, does not disclose whether the universe
obeys a Plan or is a Free-for-All. Prehension is a
function of vulnerability, not purposiveness, so
accidental rhetoric is agnostic on whether the
universe has a purpose; it acknowledges that
feeling unconditioned by motive occurs anyway
(Stormer 365).
(post)

(post) reading
rhetoric by accident
“
If the vulnerability of being makes it impossible to
not be affected, then rhetoricity is active in the
immediacy of feeling, with or without conditions
on its form, scope, or purpose (Stormer 361).
(post)

(post) reading
rhetoric by accident
“
I speculate that the “rudderless” rhetoric of
o n t o l o g i c a l o p e n n e s s i s p e r t i n e n t fo r
understanding rhetoric’s changing complexity
and diversity. Material vulnerability allows
rhetoricity to evolve in ways that are not part of
any design and that are not explained by the
efficacy and emotionality associated with being
affected (Stormer 362-63).
(post)

(post) reading
rhetoric by accident
“
Paradoxically, the ontological basis of accidents
of rhetoric—unavoidable feeling—cannot provide
a ground for ethics or rhetoric even as it
continuously goads the development of ethics
and rhetoric. The value of an accident’s
mattering is not pre-existent to its occurrence,
b u t t h e f a c t t h a t i t o c c a s i o n s s o m e
accommodation to its affects requires the
investment of value to prehensions and
concomitant adaptations; thus, ethics (Stormer
373).
(post)