Bibliophilism is a rather broad term that encompasses the love for books.  This concept, however, has been a driving force throughout the advancement of text technologies in world history.  Bibliophilism has been referenced often in the late 1800s, but the power of the word extends to times as early as before the creation of the printing press, when a need to consume texts was not being fully met.

Through personal research I found great interest in the culture of the Victorian era middle class, as it was one of the most openly concrete examples of the impacts of bibliophilism on society.  The simple love for books has created an entire cultural placeholder that selectively advanced the expansion of texts and ideas.  Because of the high amounts of interest and captivating source material, I sunk much of my research into this time period when examining bibliophilishm.

I have found that the concept also applies greatly to the forms of texts we went over in chapters 5, 6, 9, and 12 of our book, A Companion to the History of the Book, as each of these chapters contains great examples of text advancing from the need to consume more text for information.   Take the Babylonian clay tablet in chapter 5 for example: the pressing need for infinitely more information led to the systematic dissolving, and reuse of text to fill said need.

QQC 6/21/17

"Rhetorical sovereignty is the inherent right and ability of peoples to determine their own communicative needs and desires in this pursuit, to decide for themselves the goals, modes, styles, and languages of public discourse."

Keeping this in mind, how effective do you think society is in embracing rhetorical sovereignty today?  Do you think our modern rights of freedom of speech/freedom of expression are sufficient enough to keep rhetorical sovereignty prevalent?

QQC - 6.21.17

Quote: "I suggest we begin by prioritizing the study of American Indian rhetoric—and the rhetoric of the Indian—in our graduate curricula and writing programs, focusing on the history of both secret and not-so-secret wars in the contact-zone. We should be teaching the treaties and federal Indian laws as rhetorical texts themselves, situating our work within both historical and contemporary contexts. We should also study the ideologies of Indianness and Manifest Destiny that have governed it all." 

Question: Do you believe that having this well rounded knowledge will in turn improve and drastically affect the way student's write? Does knowing both sides of a story significantly improve the writer's position and in turn enhance their writing perspective?

 

QQC

Quote: "More horrific than most scenes of writing, however, the boarding school stands out as the ultimate symbol of white domination, even genocide, through assimilation in the American Indian experience." (Lyons)

Question: Why do you think Lyons feels that the boarding school is the ultimate symbol of white domination?

QQC

Quote: "This forced replacement of one identity for another, a cultural violence enabled in part through acts of physical violence, was in so many ways located at the scene of writing. More horrific than most scenes of writing, however, the boarding school stands out as the ultimate symbol of white domination, even genocide, through assimilation in the American Indian experience."

Question: How can we still be the "home of the free" when we strip people of their cultures in order to force them to be like us, and then go on to write history as if we did it for their own good?

QQC 6/21/17

Quote: "Sovereignty is the guiding story in our pursuit of self-determination, the general strategy by which we aim to best recover our losses from the ravages of colonization: our lands, our languages, our cultures, our self-respect."

Question: In what ways can sovereignty help society? In what ways can it hurt society?

QQC

Quote: "A people is a group of human beings united together by history, language, culture, or some combination therein--a community joined in union for a common purpose: the survival and flourishing of the people itself."

Question: What other ways could we rhetorically describe people?