We Know What Makes a Good Orator, but...

One thing that struck me in the sections that we found interesting on Friday was the fact that we looked at what makes a good orator; however, we merely touched upon the "pressures" that go into this type of speaking. The section that I found something to speak to the topic of such pressures lie in Crassus' and company's discussion upon the requirements of the orator (Bk. 1: XXV). Cicero writes, "For there is hardly a soul present but will turn a keener and more penetrating eye upon defects in the speaker than upon his good points. Thus any blunder that may be committed eclipses even those other things that are praiseworthy" (305). This also relates to the discussion about one’s reputation in society, which still seems relevant today in the public sphere of news and politics. One example (though it changes for the better in the end) could be found in King George VI and his stammer; to wit, the Commonwealth and the British Empire looked upon his failures to speak effectively within public and airwave-based settings. While much of this occurred early within and prior to his career on the throne, it remains important to identify that while his good points may have been present, the delivery and "blunders" as Cicero marks, seem to eclipse it and affect public opinion. 

While reading through Cicero, I was often reminded of Gorgias and his thoughts concerning language and their powers that can ensnare people’s emotions. It made me think about constructing and manipulating our language use for the specific purpose at which one speaks. in the last reading Orator, Cicero goes into detail what type to use that’s highly dependent upon one’s audience and the occasion. These elements seem to coincide with what Aristotle stated before but without as many classifications. I thought it was interesting how he subdivided and made distinctions within them, especially in his first section that marked the effectiveness which seems to be connected with the language use and intent. “He will not represent the State as speaking or call the dead from the lower world, nor will he crowd a long series of iterations into a single period” (341: left hand column). “A speech of this kind should also be sprinkled with the salt of pleasantry, which plays a rare part in speaking” (341: left hand column). To this end, I am reminded even more of Aristotle’s Rhetoric and his theories about emotions and the inciting of them through speech which Cicero continues to do in Orator.