Coming to Terms with Scholes essay ‘On Reading a Video Text Paragraphs 7 & 8 ~*~ Group Members: Melissa – Kyle - Kayla

Paragraph 7: At the bar after the game, we are off stage, outside that ritual of baseball, but we are still in the world of myth. The manager salutes the ump with his tilted bottle of beer; the old man acknowledges that youth has passed its test. The sword on the shoulder of knighthood, the laying on of hands, the tilted Bud — all these are ritual gestures in the same narrative structure of initiation. To the extent that we have wanted this to happen we are gratified by this closing scene of the narrative text, and many things, as I have suggested, conspire to make us want this ending. We are dealing with an archetypal narrative that has been adjusted for maximum effect within a particular political and social context, and all this has been deployed with a technical skill in casting, directing, acting, photographing, and editing that is of a high order. It is very hard to resist the pleasure of this text, and we cannot accept the pleasure without, for the bewildering minute at least, also accepting the ideology that is so richly and closely entangled with the story that we construct from the video text. To accept the pleasure of this text is to believe that America works; and this is a comforting belief, itself a pleasure of an even higher order — for as long as we can maintain it. Does the text also sell Budweiser? This is something only market research (if you believe it) can tell. But it surely sells the American way first and then seeks to sell its brand of beer by establishing a metonymic connection between the product and the nation: a national beer for the national pastime.

Paragraph 8: An audience that can understand this commercial, successfully constructing the ump's story from the scenes represented in the text and the comments of the narrative voice, is an audience that understands narrative structure and has a significant amount of cultural knowledge as well, including both data (how baseball leagues are organized, for instance, and how the game is played) and myth (what constitutes success, for example, and what initiation is). At a time when critics such as William Bennett and E. D. Hirsch are bewailing our ignorance of culture, it is important to realize that many Americans are not without culture; they simply have a different culture from that of Bennett and Hirsch. What they really lack, for the most part, is any way of analyzing and criticizing the power of a text like the Budweiser commercial — not its power to sell beer, which is easily resisted, especially once you have tasted better beer — but its power to sell America. For the sort of analysis that I am suggesting, it is necessary to recover (as Eliot says) from the surrender to this text, and it is also necessary to have the tools of ideological criticism. Recovery, in fact, may depend upon critical analysis, which is why the analysis of video texts needs to be taught in all our schools.

1) What are some of the key terms/words or phrases Scholes uses in these paragraphs 7 and 8? How would you define these terms and/or phrases in your own words?

“We are dealing with an archetypal narrative that has been adjusted for maximum effect within a particular political and social context, and all this has been deployed with a technical skill in casting, directing, acting, photographing, and editing that is of a high order.”

Archetypal literary criticism is a type of critical theory that interprets a text by focusing on recurring myths and archetypes, in regards to video text Scholes clearly has a positive tone/context. Scholer’s points out that video text has the “maximum effect” due to a mulititude “technical skill in casting, directing, acting, photographing, and editing that is of a high order”, and we would agree.

“At a time when critics such as William Bennett and E. D. Hirsch are bewailing our ignorance of culture, it is important to realize that many Americans are not without culture; they simply have a different culture from that of Bennett and Hirsch.”

We believer that the above phrase is important because Scholes is clearing stating what “they say” in his writing, thus contributing to the “conversation” of the article.

“…which is why the analysis of video texts needs to be taught in all our schools.”

The above key phrase is important because it’s a strong statement of Scholes belief, clearly stated, with out all the huge words, it clearly set’s to tone of the authors belief that video text is a superior text that needs to be “taught in all our schools”.

2) What do you think Scholes is saying here? In other words, what do you think he is trying to tell his reader(s) and why might he think this message is important?

Scholes contest that video text in its entirety is the most effective with a political and social context; furthermore he believes that it should be taught in all our schools.

3) What are some questions you have about this reading, these two paragraphs, in particular? Write those questions down and attempt to respond to them as a group.

I think that biggest question we have is the use of technical terminology reference in the text itself. For example the use of words like “archetypal narrative” isn’t really explained in detail and somewhat convolutes the audiences understanding for the context of the article. In general it’s confusing, and we believe Scholes could be simplifying the text and maintain his points, and keep his audience.

4) Thinking in terms of this essay as a whole project, what do you think are Scholes’s central idea(s) or major claim(s) that he wants his reader(s) to understand?

Scholes central idea is that video text is a good, positive text that “needs to be taught in all our schools”, as Scholes states in paragraph 8. Scholes major claim is that the archetypal narrative has basically been adjusted to its “maximum effect” via video text.