Fun, Oh Boy. Fun. You Could Die from It

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Fun, Oh Boy. Fun. You Could Die from It

• By Suzanne Britt Jordan

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Pre-reading

• What expectations do you bring to an article
  entitled Fun, Oh Boy. Fun. You Could Die from
  it? Can fun actually harm or kill you? In what
  ways? Do you think that Americans are too much of
  a fun culture? Why or why not?
• Do you think we Changsha people have a fun
  culture? Why or why not?

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Pre-reading

• Consider the contrasts between, and shades of
  difference within, puritan (par. 3).
  selfless (par. 4), and Licentiousness (par.
  9). Or between epitome (par. 11), reverently
  (par. 13), and blaspheme (par. 13). What do
  these words imply about the essay, the author?
  What do you guess the essay is likely to say?

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About the author Suzanne
Britt Jordan

• Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and
  attended Salem College and Washington University.
  She has been a columnist for the Raleigh News and
  Observer and Stars and Stripes, European edition,
  and has written for other newspapers and
  newsmagazines.

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• Jordans books include a collection of essays,
  Show and Tell (1982) Skinny People Are Dull and
  Crunchy like Carrots (1982), an expansion of her
  essay "That Lean and Hungry Look" and A Writers
  Rhetoric (1988), a college textbook. This essay
  originally appeared in the "My Turn" column of
  Newsweek magazine.

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Newsweek
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Puritans

• Puritans refer to a group of radical English
  protestants that arose in the late sixteenth
  century and became a major force in England
  during the seventeenth century. Puritans wanted
  to purify the Church of England by eliminating
  traces of its origins in the Roman Catholic
  Church. In addition, they urged a strict moral
  code and placed a high value on hard work. After
  the execution of King Charles I in 1649, they
  controlled the new government, the Commonwealth.

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• Oliver Cromwell, who became leader of the
  Commonwealth, is the best-known Puritans. Many
  Puritans, persecuted in their homeland, came to
  America in the 1620s and 1630s, setting colonies
  that eventually became Massachusetts. The words
  puritan and puritanical have come to suggest a
  zeal for keeping people from enjoying themselves.
  One who is scrupulous and strict in his religious
  life often used reproachfully or in contempt
  one who has overstrict notions.

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Structural analysis of the Text

• The essay evaluates the fun side of the
  American culture in an ironic way. The first five
  paragraphs, which form the introduction to the
  essay, provide a stipulative definition of fun.
  Then in the main body of the text, the writer
  gives an extended definition of it by pointing
  out what it is not. The essay concludes with an
  anecdote that further explains what fun is. To
  develop the definition, a number of methods have
  been employed, among which are narration.,
  comparison and contrast.

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In reading

• What other rhetorical strategies are used in this
  essay? (hint pars. 8 14 pars. 6 10
• Repetition
• Simile
• Personification

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Vocabulary Building

• 1. A. something precious
• B. by all-powers
• C. she feels terrible
• D. Gosh
• 2. A. render unimportant or insignificant
• B. failing
• C. walking aimlessly or idly
• D. drinking greedily or excessively
• Gaiety, merriment

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Understanding the Writers ideas

• 1. In pars. 1-5, she implies that fun is not
  easily come by it is not something common it is
  not something that necessarily comes daily and
  it is not simply pure pleasure.
• 2. We would make it into fun, despite the fact
  that it may not have been so. For example, she
  cites things that got the reputation of being fun
  (6) family outings, sex, education, work, Walt
  Disney, church, staying fit.

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Understanding the Writers ideas

• 3. By placing happy faces on them.
• 4. By stepping up the level of danger or
  licentiousness or alcohol or drug consumption.
• 5. Taking Polaroid picture, swilling beer, buying
  insurance, mopping the floor, bowing, taking
  aspirin (10)

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Happy face
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(No Transcript)
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Understanding the Writers ideas

• 6. We usually anticipate the fun so much on big
  occasions that we end up missing it when it
  finally comes. It may even come on a Tuesday
  means that fun may come when we least expect it,
  when there is no big occasion.

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Understanding the Writers ideas

• 7. About fun, Jordan says not much is (12). She
  feels we ought to be more reverent about fun, to
  feel it more as a mystery than as something to
  which we are automatically entitled. It may even
  come when we are working or performing some duty,
  implying that those things can be the real fun
  in life (13)

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Understanding the Writers ideas

• 8. They were about twelve years old. They had
  just bought candyBit-O-Honey, malted milk balls,
  chocolate stars, Chunkies, M Msand were
  walking home together. Pams gestures were
  especially funny because they were truly enjoying
  each others friendshipthat is, having fun.

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Understanding the Writers ideas

• 9. She is regretful about growing up and
  feeling, therefore, that she has lost the kind
  of day and friendship and occasion that she had
  with Pam. It is difficult to say how sad or
  regretful she really is she seems more
  bittersweet than sad, although some readers might
  logically question why growing up precludes
  having fun

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Understanding the Writers Techniques

• 1. Fun comes unexpectedly, it is not there for
  the asking. Par. 13 provides the key elements of
  the thesis.
• 2. The first two paragraphs are, in a way,
  definitions of fun. However, these two
  sentences, either singly or together, do not
  sufficiently define the abstract concept which is
  the subject of the essay The first (fun is hard
  to have) simply states the quality of the
  concepts the second (Fun is a rare jewel.)
  makes a metaphorical comparison.

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Understanding the Writers ideas

• 3. In the three paragraphs, Jordan mentions all
  sorts of things that are supposed to be fun,
  but does so in a way to suggest that she
  certainly does not think of them as automatically
  being fun. For example, in par. 7 she explains
  how happy face stickers are supposed to make
  fun out of something like a flunked test.

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• Par. 8 relates a vignette(???) in which a kid
  does not respond the right way to something which
  his or her parents are sure would be fun. And
  in par. 9 she becomes more serious in her irony
  by indicating that drug or alcohol abuse is
  sometimes a negative way of making fun out of
  times when life is not so thrilling

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Understanding the Writers ideas

• 4. The fact that we have accepted some things as
  fun mainly because, through advertising or
  cultural assimilation, we have come to think of
  them as having to be fun although we may not
  actually derive any pleasure from them.
• 5. Jordan attempts to include in her definition
  and analysis the broad spectrum of objects,
  products, and activities which we have come to
  assume are fun, but may, in fact, not be so.

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Understanding the Writers ideas

• 6. The tone is talky and slightly cynical
  although essentially it remains a lighthearted
  irony through the use of conversational words and
  phrases. Among these are snakes alive! (3) by
  Jove (5) flunking (7) this aint fun, ma (8)
  Golly gee (8) those rough-and-ready guys (10)

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Understanding the Writers ideas

• 7. As in her use of everyday and everything,
  Jordan is attempting to show us just how many
  things from so many different types of activities
  we take for granted as having to be fun. In a
  way, she is trying to point out to us that we are
  often much too unselective in our evaluations of
  fun. Pars. 6 and 10 are especially effective
  for their use of multiple examples.

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Understanding the Writers ideas

• 8. Par. 12 serves as a transitional paragraph,
  whereas par. 13 is the first one to be mostly
  affirmative (It is a mystery.) The switch turns
  the tone of the essay from ironic or cynical to
  more serious and reminiscent of fun times in the
  past
• 9. Disney World (8) Polaroids (10) Bit-O-Honey,
  Chunky, M Ms (14). By using specific brand
  names, she brings specificity and familiarity to
  her illustrations.

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Disney Land
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Polaroids
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Bit-O-Honey
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Chunky
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M Ms
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Understanding the Writers ideas

• 10. Narration is used to illustrate aspects of
  the concept of fun. Par. 8 is the imagined
  story of a kid with his or her parents in Disney
  World. Par. 14 narrates a fun time Jordan had
  with her childhood friend, Pam. The narration of
  her childhood memory adds a nice, personal touch
  to the essay.

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Understanding the Writers ideas

• 11. Perhaps she wants her readers to begin and
  end this essay with the idea that fun is really
  quite simplenot so complicated and busy as all
  the things she describes in the body of the
  essay.

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Language points

• somewhere along the line inf. During the time
  when you are involved in an activity or process,
  e.g.
• Somewhere along the line, Jack seemed to have
  lost interest in their marriage.
• Somewhere along the line, his father became
  addicted to gambling.

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• 2. deserve be worthy of (???????), e.g.
• He deserves to be scolded for having broken the
  precious vase.
• The composition deserves careful study.
• deserve doing deserve to be done, e.g
• deserve criticizing

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• 3. overshadow to make ( sb. Or sth.) less
  successful, important or impressive by comparison
  with others to dominate)
• e.g.
• Ben overshadows all his colleagues.
• She is overshadowed by her younger and more
  attractive sister.

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• 4. beneficial producing results that bring
  advantages, e.g.
• beneficial effects
• An agreement has been reached that will be
  beneficial to both parties.

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• 5. reputation the opinion that people have about
  a particular person or thing because of what has
  happened in the past, e.g.
• He has a reputation for honesty and efficiency.
• The man began to establish a reputation as a
  writer at the age of 19.
• earn / win / establish a reputation as
• live up to your reputation

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• 6. flunk to fail, especially (in) a course or an
  exam
• The boy was upset because he flunked (in) an
  English Exam.
• Flunk out to expel or be expelled from a school
  or a course because of work that does not meet
  required standards.
• We spent the day traipsing from one shop to
  another.

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• 7. very right (for the sake of emphasis), usu.
  used with the superlative form of adj. or first
  and last, etc. e.g.
• There have been three accidents in this very same
  place.
• The very first thing you must do is ring the
  police.
• Shes the very worst cook Ive ever encountered.

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• 8. consumption consume, consumer
• This is produced for domestic consumption.
• There is too great a consumption of alcohol in
  Britain.
• We have no more right to consume happiness
  without producing it than to consume wealth
  without producing it. (Bernard Shaw)(?????????????
  ,??????????????????????????????)

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• 8. epitome an ideal a typical representation
• His father is the epitome of goodness.
• He is seenas the epitome of the hawkish,
  right-of-center intellectual.
• Epitomize to be an epitome of something
• He epitomizes the loving father.
• She epitomizes all the good qualities of her
  family.

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• 10. no matter what no matter what happens you
  will definitely do sth, e.g.
• Ill call you tonight no matter what.
• No matter what, hell be there on time.
• 11. flick make sth. move away by hitting or
  pushing it suddenly or quickly, especially with
  your thumb or finger

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• 12. dom 1) the state of being sth., freedom,
  wisdom
• 2) a. a particular rank, an earldom??/ dukedom
• b. an area ruled by a particular type of
  person, a kingdom
• 3) inf. All the people who share the same set
  of interests, have the same job etc.,
• Officialdom??, yuppiedom (uncountable nouns)

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• 13. go through
• 1) suffer or experience sth. bad, e.g.
• How does she keep smiling after all shes gone
  through?
• 2) to use sth. and have none left, e.g.
• Austria was so expensive we went through all
  our money in one week.
• 3) a law was accepted, e.g.
• The Bill went through Parliament without a
  vote. (??????????????)
• 4) look at or for sth. carefully, e.g.
• Dave went through all his pockets looking for the
  keys.

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• 14. damper something that stops an occasion from
  being an enjoyable as it was intended to be, e.g.
• The bad news put/cast/threw a damper on the party.

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15 scan

• (1) to examine (sth.) carefully, with the eyes or
  with a machine, in order to obtain information,
  e.g.
• She anxiously scanned the faces of the young
• men leaving the train in the hope of finding her
  son.
• (2) To scan a text can also mean to look through
  it quickly in order to find a piece of
  information that one wants to get a general idea
  of what the text contains.

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Translation

1. It goes without saying that Shakespeare
   overshadows all the other playwrights throughout
   the ages.
2. The Great Gatsby is commonly deemed as the
   epitome of the Jazz Age of the last century in
   America.
3. It is advisable for you not to put a damper on
   his enthusiasm to further his studies at Harvard.

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• 4. Young people tend to make a fetish of
  glamorous stars in sports and entertainment
  circles.
• 5. They traipsed all the way to the Peoples
  Square for the celebrations of the National Day.
• 6. He does not deserve such severe punishment, as
  he has committed neither serious errors nor grave
  crimes.
• 7. Every time I met him, he would talk a whole
  lot of nonsense.

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• 8. He said that reputation is a trap into which
  many people are ready to fall.

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Note-writing

• Here is a note offering tickets to a friend. In
  notes of this kind, the specific offers should be
  clearly mentioned. Usually the reason for the
  offer is given. Sometimes a reply is required if
  the contents require one.

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• 
  10 May, 2000
• Dear John,
• Ive got two tickets for the Chinese Folk
  Song Concert, which is on this coming Sunday at
  730 p m. I know you have always been a music
  lover. But do you care for vocal recitals? If you
  are interested, we can go together. Please let me
  know by calling me up at my office.
• 
  David

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• Thanks for your attention!