Orchid Keeper's Rant Part 2 If you are struggling to come up with enough villians for your piece, you can always fall back upon upon one of the nearly universal symbols of totalitarianism: Nazis, Communists, the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood. For the greatest emotional impact go with the Nazis, whose primacy in the Pantheon of Evil remains unchallenged. Offer a (seemingly logical) progression that leads, for example, from a natural disaster to the apogee of Nazi culture, the mass extermination camps. Who but Satan's minions can argue in favor of any actions which may ultimately lead to genocide?
Orchid Keeper provides an interesting combination of villians, though I must object to the inclusion of DOS in this list. Isn't Windows a much greater threat? Style Points While those who teach writing courses in our universities may recommend some sort of structure to your writings, the true ranter knows otherwise. An effective rant should reflect the writer's mental processes at work, and should contain liberal doses of non-sequiturs, logical fallacies and garbled syntax. Nothing gets the readers' attention like capital letters. For emphasis, set Caps Lock to ON. Statements written in lowers-case letters seem calm and deliberative, almost collegial. Capitals, in contrast, seem like shouting, like you really turned up the volume. Capital letters imply that the writer really means what he says, suggests that he may be at his wit's end, and that the next step could be some irrational or possibly even newsworthy act. Read a rant that is exclusively in capital letters, and you can just see that loaded handgun and a bottle of whiskey beside the keyboard! For comparison, consider the following two statements: I know where you live. I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE. The implications are made clear with the simple use of the Caps Lock key. Readers of a good rant should feel like they just sat down at a bus stop next to some homeless schizophrenic who appears to be in conversation with someone else, though he sits alone. You're not sure if he's talking to you or some inner voice, you have no clue what the conversation is about, and you sympathize with his apparent illness, but mostly you just wish he would go away. Thanks for the entertainment, Orchid Keeper! Regards, Rick Barry _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
