Science
Related: About this forumChris Mooney interviews Joe Romm about "Language Intelligence"
Joe Romm's new book has been getting a lot of good reviews.
Here's a very interesting interview on Chris Mooney's podcast "Point of Inquiry".
mp3: http://traffic.libsyn.com/pointofinquiry/POI_2012_08_13_Joe_Romm.mp3
Point of Inquiry
August 13, 2012
Host: Chris Mooney
This week's guest is Joe Romm. You may know him as a top blogger on global warming and energybut that's not why we're having him on.
In an impressive show of versatility, Romm the scientist has written a book about how to persuade people. It's entitled Language Intelligence: Lessons on Persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga. In essence, it's a treatise on the neglected art of rhetoric, the technique mastered by Shakespeare and the writers of the King James Bible.
In it, Romm delves deeply into figures of speech, and how they make orators persuasive by allowing them to activate people's emotions. Indeed, as Romm writes, modern neuroscience now confirms what the poets always knew about getting to people's heads through their hearts (that's a metaphor, by the wayone of the chief techniques that Romm discusses).
If you ever want to understand why scientistsand people devoted to reason and critical thinkingfare so poorly getting their message across, you are going to want to listen to this show.
Joe Romm is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, and oversees the blog ClimateProgress.org, which was named one of Time Magazine's Fifteen Favorite Websites for the Environment in 2007. He is also the author of several books, including Hell and High Water: Global WarmingThe Solution and The Politics. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from MIT, and served as acting assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy during 1997 and principal deputy assistant secretary from 1995 through 1998.
Jim__
(14,076 posts)I'm curious because having listened to the presentation, the main point I took away from it is that metaphors are powerful persuaders. I agree. But, you have to be very careful in their use. The similarity between metaphors and cliches is one of the main points I take away from Orwell's Politics and the English Language. Existing metaphors tend to be cliches and lack all power. We should strive to use original metaphors. That's something I find difficult. I agree that morning in America is a powerful metaphor (or was when Reagan used it in '84), but coming up with something like that is not trivial. I find it easier, more natural, to come up with similes. Do you know if his book talks about the different effects of using metaphors and similes?
bananas
(27,509 posts)but on his blog he's posted links to reviews and comments that people have made, if that helps.
Also, you can read the introduction at amazon: http://www.amzn.com/Language-Intelligence-persuasion-Shakespeare-ebook/dp/B008RZD4L2/
Here are his blog entries about the book:
- http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/13/680631/buy-language-intelligence-lessons-on-persuasion-from-jesus-to-ladygaga-httpamzntonuda5j/
- http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/13/684321/heidi-cullen-romms-book-language-intelligence-is-insightful-and-important/
- http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/13/685701/chris-mooney-why-everybody-must-read-joe-romms-new-book-emlanguage-intelligenceem/
- http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/14/688561/who-is-the-better-communicator-romney-or-obama/
- http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/14/689221/rep-ed-markey-emlanguage-intelligenceem-is-gps-for-modern-day-communicators/
- http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/14/691591/al-gore-tweets-be-persuasive-win-the-conversation-joe-romm-shows-you-how-in-his-new-book/
- http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/15/694381/meet-singer-daria-musk-and-the-low-carbon-google-concert-of-the-future/