ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

interested as, or even more so, than the son himself. When we talk to people in terms of their own vital concerns, they are pretty likely to pay attention.

C. The Uncertain. By this term we mean the incomplete or partial situation. There is a feeling that we have not adjusted ourselves to the whole thing because we are not yet confronted with the whole thing, and our responses tend to continue until the situation is complete and we have responded to it as a whole. This is the element of suspense which keeps us interested in the drama until the final curtain comes down. It is the element which Lincoln's audience at Cooper Union1 in 1860 must have felt profoundly as he unrolled his argument before them step by step with such amazing precision and with such careful consideration of the principle of climax. If you would keep your audience interested, beware of giving them a sense of completeness. When the comment of those to whom you speak is, "He talked too long", "He went past a number of good stopping points", "He seemed to lack terminal facilities", you may understand that you have violated this principle and have therefore lost the attention of your audience.

D. The antagonistic means combat, conflict, and struggle between things, or men, or forces. It would seem that this is merely another form of the preceding, the uncertain. The element which makes for interest here is, again, that of incompleteness. We do not feel adjusted to the situation because it is constantly changing and developing toward some unknown outcome. The fact that we are interested in a struggle does not mean necessarily that we are going to enjoy the outcome; we may or we may not, depending upon the pleasantness or unpleasantness of the response which the outcome produces in

Our interest in a game must very largely rest upon the uncertain and the antagonistic, although some of the other elements such as the animate and the vital may play a part. One very useful application of the principle of the uncertain

4 J. M. O'Neill, Models, p. 341.

is to present your meanings when possible in narrative form or in terms of a contest. So long as human nature is what it is, a good dog fight is pretty likely to take attention away from the world's greatest speaker.

E. The Similar. It would almost seem that a better term here would be the "somewhat familiar." Most of us are lazy. We like to be asked to do what we can do easily, other things being equal, hence our interest in things with which we are somewhat familiar, i.e., the things to which we can fit our habit responses without too much effort. Obviously, if we become perfectly adjusted to them, we cease to be interested. Even fried chicken would cease to be an object of interest if we were to have it three times a day 365 days in the year. Steffanson, who spent the greater part of fourteen years above the Arctic Circle, says that he lived day in and day out for months at a time on a diet consisting exclusively of whale meat. He testifies that he came to the point where eating lost much of its normal zest, although he did not particularly dislike the meat. The absolutely familiar, of course, tends to lose all of the qualities of interestingness.

F. The Novel. — This needs to be considered in close association with the similar. We like new things, but we like them in connection with old things. We must judiciously mix in the new with the old if we are to get a happy combination of the factors of interestingness. We say we like to hear the old things said in new ways. The fact that there is something new about the familiar thing gives us a little pleasant exercise in adjusting ourselves to it, while the fact that it is somewhat familiar guarantees our success in making a satisfactory adjustment after going through the pleasant exercise.

G. The Concrete. People like to deal with concrete elements of experience rather than with abstract combinations of elements. It is equally true that the specific is more interesting than the general. The abstract thought is more or less an individual product. Probably no two people ever had precisely the same abstract thought; consequently we find it

rather difficult to respond to combinations of words which stand for these abstractions. On the other hand, we can, to speak figuratively, wrap our minds about concrete, specific things and respond to them in ways which give us a pleasant feeling of adequacy. Some of you who are reading this book doubtless wish that it were put in terms which could be integrated more easily with your experience. This is one way of saying that you wish the authors would be concrete and specific. If so, the reason is that you do not like to think; no one ever likes to think so long as habits will suffice. Certainly it is only the select few who ever get away from the concrete and specific in their environment and acquire any real capacity for handling the general and abstract.

There are two special applications of this principle of the concrete which should be noted. First, the interest of the average man is in personalities rather than in physical things and combinations of physical things. Compare the interest of the American people in Abraham Lincoln with their interest in and attention to the political issues with which his life is connected. Second, we must not overlook the inherent efficiency of the analogy when adroitly and skillfully used in the discussion of things which might easily become abstract. The analogy brings the abstract and general down to the place where the average individual can react with a feeling of adequacy. Note the use of parables in the New Testament. Some of these are interesting because of other factors as well, but all of them are interesting because they are specific and concrete.

Perhaps in conclusion we should call attention once more to the fact (notice the phrase "call attention" - what does it mean here?) that at the beginning of a public speech the speaker ordinarily has the attention of those whom he is going to address. When the speaker finds himself thus situated all he has to do, and generally this is sufficiently difficult, is to hold the advantage with which he starts. It will do you no See pp. 283-285.

good to tell the audience that they ought to be interested, that it is their duty to be interested, that you can't understand why they aren't interested, etc. You must see to it that they continue to be interested, and, unless you can accomplish this fundamental task, you can scarcely hope to get beyond it. As we shall see in the next chapter, the things which interest one person, fortunately or unfortunately, do not always interest others. As speakers, we must be sure to measure the attention values of our speaking entirely in terms of the experience of those to whom we speak.

EXERCISES

1. Select some magazine or newspaper advertisement which you think has high attention values and then present it to the class with an explanation of its interestingness.

2. Tell the class about some interesting work of fiction which you have recently read explaining why and how it holds the attention of a reader.

3. Select some successful public speech and analyze its use of the factors of interestingness.

4. Tell the class the story of a play you have seen. Strive to hold their interest as well as the play held yours when you saw it. 5. Tell the class an interesting personal experience.

6. Tell the class an entertaining story and make the story illustrate some principle or truth which you want the class to accept. In other words, make some definite use of the interest which you

arouse.

7. Write the best ten-minute speech you can prepare on any topic of your own choosing, and then annotate the manuscript pointing out your uses of the factors of interestingness.

CHAPTER XIX

MOTIVATION

I. THE PLACE OF MOTIVATION IN SPEECH

II. FUNDAMENTAL EMOTIONAL TENDENCIES

III. THE NATURE OF BELIEF

A. Response Tendencies in Belief

B. Emotional Reinforcement in Beliefs
C. Rationalization

D. Logic and Reasoning

IV. THE DELAYED REACTION
A. The Wish

B. Voluntary Actions

C. Drive

V. THE IMPELLING MOTIVES

A. Self-preservation

B. Property

C. Power

D. Reputation

E. Affections

F. Tastes

G. Sentiments

VI. THE SPEAKER'S PERSONALITY

A. Muscle Tensions

B. Sympathy and Tact

C. Vocalization

VII. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CROWD

A. Definition

B. Social Facilitation

C. Uniform Action in Crowds

D. Crowd Morals

VIII. SUGGESTION

A. The Conditioned Response

B. The Factors of Suggestibility

C. Suggestion Values of Speech Symbols

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »