The Figure Of A Snoot, By David Foster Wallace

In the American society, the exterior of a human has higher values than the interior. For instance, an athlete is held in high regard by the public, due to their aesthetically appealing body and the proficient ability to do physical activities. On the other hand, a nerd or geek is seen as an outcast in society, because of their intelligence. These uneven values of society are exactly what the founding member of the society of Nerds and Geeks at Harvard University, Leonid Fridman argues upon in his writing of “America Needs its Nerds.” Through the rhetorical strategies of tone, pathos, and rhetorical questioning, Fridman emphasizes the significance of intellectually driven people in America.

“Authority and American Usage” written by David Foster Wallace, poses an argument about the English language, and the different beliefs of its usage. This essay was written in defense of Bryan A. Garner’s, A Dictionary of Modern American Usage. His argument in “Authority and American Usage” is the difference the between prescriptivism perception and the descriptivism perception (Linguistic terms that could easily be made into smaller, more understandable words for people like me). Since the beginning of time, language has evolved. From biblical times, to Shakespearean times, to present day; the English language has been continuously changing since it’s birth and has no intentions on stopping.

Unlike Bender, Brian would not need any guidance for proper behavior because he is a “teacher pleaser.” Brian is seen as a “geek,” one who enjoys participating in academic clubs, learning and always follows the rules. Brian’s confidence is linked to his grades, his parent’s perceptions and his peer’s perceptions of him.

When readers read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, they are taken the World State, a dystopian society where the citizens are attracted to material goods, immediate happiness, and drugs that distract themselves from reality. Do Readers begin to wonder if the society we live in today become a dystopian society? While comparing societies, we begin to realize that our society is almost identical to the World State. Our societies are very similar, but we will never become a dystopian society like the World State, for we are not controlled by material goods, immediate happiness and drugs, we are controlled by our emotions.

Leonid Fridman, author of "America Needs Its Nerds" wrote about how people who want to pursue their knowledge should be not be ashamed of that. Fridman develops his argument by talking about how other countries go about learning compared to the U.S, asking rhetorical questions, finding similarities between the different school/ education levels when it comes to the terms "nerd" and "geek".

A Brave New World published in 1932 by Aldous Huxley was about a utopian society in which people were placed in castes because of how their embryos were modified. Little did the author know less than a century later the idea of “designer babies” might be a reality. Designer babies are very similar to Huxley’s idea; a person could be genetically altered before they were born. Unlike Huxley’s book, in which embryos were genetically modified due to government industrial control, designer babies’ destinies are determined by parental control. Although, gene alteration can prevent genetic diseases, predetermining genetic outcomes should be illegal because of its negative effects on society; the effect genes have on each other, and the underwhelming success rate.

Finally, the author uses exemplification to show how hard it really is being a nerd in America. The author mentions in his passage how, "the average professional ballplayer is much more respected and better paid than faculty members of the best universities". How can one be a nerd who studies hard and gets good grades in a country where they are not as respected as the average ballplayer. Leonid Fridman also mentions in his passage how kids who are nerds tend to become social outcasts. America needs to stop having hatred towards these kids because they are the foundation of this great country and our

“Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart.”(Marguerite Gardiner Blessington). Over the years, countless people have fallen in to the dark abyss of prejudice because they merely following the trend of society. Prejudice is exactly what it sounds like; its root words are firmly planted. Prejudice may be defined as the act of pre judging someone because of their race, religion, sex, ethnic background, or can be based solely on how they look. Prejudice is a flaw in society many have dealt with for centuries, but one race has suffered in the United States of America where “all men are equal”, more than any other race in history. If all men are created equal, how could we treat people of a different color so unjustly? It is a travesty that cannot be forgotten and that can not, must not, and shall not be repeated. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee states the truth behind a world with closed minds. She put the world into perspective through her commentary that is still relevant today. Through her writing, we see the compassion, sympathy, and tolerance, or the lack thereof, from all perspectives: a father, a racist man, a confused woman, children, negroes, and a dear lawyer named Atticus Finch.

“This is water” by David Foster Wallace is a very well written truth, for the most part, the advice that Mr. foster had for the college seniors was necessary and needed, it seems that the advice will be needed more in the future. Mr. David Foster depict how most of the college senior’s life will be, he also gives various examples that the college seniors can relate to, including myself, the example of the grocery shop where the line is super long, or getting stuck in traffic, is something that happens every day. Back when I was in high school, I used to experience heavy traffic early in the morning as well as the afternoon, however, I’m not a college senior, I still experience traffic, my point is everyone is going to experience it at least

Throughout “Consider the Lobster”, an article written by David Foster Wallace about the 2004 Maine Lobster Festival, Wallace demonstrates that not all of his writing is clear and concise. The author does this through his various viewpoints in the article, which allow him to capture the reader 's attention. A particular sentence that captures the initiation of Wallace’s writing is, “The suppers come in styrofoam trays, and the soft drinks are iceless and flat, and the coffee is convenience-store coffee in more styrofoam, and the utensils are plastic (there are none of the special long skinny forks for pushing out the tail meat.)” (Pg. 239). Within this sentence, Wallace describes the many parts of the festival and how they show the poor side of the festival. Between the cheap styrofoam trays and the flat drinks, the festival gives off a poor vibe to the reader.

In Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace, the author questions why is it ok "to boil a sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure?"(Wallace, 60). Wallace questions why people, those who eat the lobsters, find it morally and ethically correct to eat a sentient being that has been tortured. Wallace uses the lobster to convey the picture of a sentient creature being tortured before its consumption, through this he explains the preferences of the people who eat these creatures and how their morals and ethics have been redefined to find the process acceptable. This paper will discuss Wallace 's examination of his question and how the solution relates to preference, morals, and ethics. While on the surface the essay is about why those eating lobster find it alright to torture the creature first before consuming it, what the author is really exploring is humans "preferring" not to cross paths with moral problems like torture, causing ethical practices to progress the avoidance and less urgency of these moral problems.

The author uses words such as "ostracized for their intelligence" to persuade the audience to believe people who devote their life mastering the arts of education to be martyr and killed by the social society. He said nerds and geeks were compared as a "freak' to leave you in conclusion that nerds and geek are being imagined as a wild creature that has

George Orwell states that, “our civilization is decadent and our language…must inevitably share in the general collapse” (Orwell 2000, 1), when he argues for prescriptivism (though toned down from what was taught and accepted in his day). While Garner posits that, “describers, meanwhile, remind us that linguistic change is a fact of life – and conclude that it’s therefore not worth opposing” (Garner, Making Peace in the Language Wars 2008, 272). When David Foster Wallace discusses descriptivism, he makes a historical reference to, “Philip Gove’s now classic introduction to Webster’s Third [which] outlines this type of Descriptivism’s five basic edicts: ‘1 – Language changes constantly; 2 – change is normal; 3 – spoken language is the language; 4 – correctness rests upon usage; 5 – All usage is relative.’” (Wallace 2005, 83). Wallace himself argues against most of these edicts, proving himself to uphold his snootitude. Bryan A. Garner creates a list similar to that of Gove’s, while addressing the argument that “learning grammar may seem like an exercise in pedantry,” which is a point argued by many descriptivists:

Ever wonder how good grammar can lead to success? Think about it like this, say you just sent an essay to the college of your dreams, and you’ve worked on that essay for weeks fixing it, making sure the grammar is perfect. Finally the letter you been waiting for is here, and you’re so nervous and scared to see what it says. Once you open it you see that you’ve gotten accepted, and they’re amazed with the grammar used in your essay, and that they’ll love having someone with that good of a grammar at their college. Good grammar doesn’t only lead to good success, but great opportunities in life which is better for our future.

The essay “The Naked Face” written by Malcom Gladwell is about the ability of recognizing the meaning behind someone’s facial expressions. He starts the essay with a life or death situation between an inner city police officer and a suspect that both are pointing guns at each other. The officer clearly has the right to shoot the suspect, but decided not to base on a hunch that the armed suspect was not a threat (Gladwell 24). Gladwell then demonstrates that the police officer is one out of a thousand people that scored really well on a psychology test to determine if someone is lying or telling the truth based on facial expressions (Gladwell 59). Gladwell’s essay then continues with