How To Love Lit Podcast

I’m Christy Shriver, and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. 

I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  Last episode we concluded our series on George Bernard Shaw, a man who believed art should be didactic.  This week we explore another artist, Mary Fisher, who also has something important to say.  Fisher advocates through her sculptures, quilts and textiles, but also through her speeches.  She has authored six books, received honorary doctorates and has traveled around the world as a Special Representative of the United Nations.  Fisher first emerged into the American national spotlight on August 19 in 1992 when she ascended to the podium in Houston, TX at the 1992 Republican National Convention.  She spoke for ten minutes in the middle of the day long before the famous keynote politicians of the evening.   She was not is a politician.  She stood before the crowd of partisan delegates as the daughter of a wealthy and powerful fundraiser.  She was an adviser to former president Ford, but that was not why she was there.  She was there to announce that she, like Rock Hudson, Magic Johnson and Freddie Mercury and thousands of others was HIV positive.  Her speech, “A Whisper of AIDS”, rocked not just the stunned onlookers from within the hall, but also the millions who watched the broadcast on TV.  It has been ranked by Oxford Press as one of the 100 Best American Speeches of the 20th Century.  Today we will read her remarkable speech, discuss the rhetorical situation in which is was delivered, and the impact Fisher has made on this important global issue. 

If you’ve listened to our discussions of other non-fiction pieces, you may have heard us reference Aristotle, the father of rhetoric in the West.  He has informed speakers and writers for thousands of years, literally.  According to Aristotle, all speakers must do three essential things do to be effective.  First, we must establish our credibility.  When anyone gets up to speak whether you realize it or not, you’re going to ask yourself why should I believe what you have to say?  Secondly, we must open the hearts of our listeners.  They must not just hear words but be moved to act.  Thirdly, we must create a line of reasoning that makes sense. Our reasons must connect with each other and add up to a conclusion that compels us to move forward in the direction provided by the speaker.  These three elements constitute what many call the rhetorical triangle.   It’s easy to understand what to, much harder to pull it off.  The Ancient Greeks called it ethos, pathos, logos, and the greatest practioners in the world have moved the human race, to do great things as well as to commit great atrocities just through words.  Today, especially as we look at this extremely impactful speech, we need to discuss another ancient rhetorical concept.  The term is “Kairos” or time.  The Greeks used it not to mean the clock as in chronology but to mean timeliness, the timing of the speech - the concept of timeliness of something.  Of course, we understand this all the time, how many times have you heard someone say, “I don’t know if this is the right time to tell you…and then they drop a bombshell”. We intuitively know that sometimes the timing of something makes or breaks the argument.