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« Who Does No. 2 Work For? | Main | Palin: Bush in Diguise! »
Friday
Oct032008

Kitsch and Table

DateFriday, October 3, 2008 at 09:57AM

He’s not been a maverick on virtually anything that genuinely affects the things that people really talk about around their kitchen table.

 - Joe Biden, speaking of John McCain during the vice presidential debate

metonymy (meh-TON-y-my), the scale-changing trope.  From the Greek, meaning “name change.”

Candidate debates give Figaro the same ennui he feels watching most Super Bowls. Everybody is just so darn careful. Last night, the cliches flew like nobody’s business. The two candidates used the tired old “kitchen table” five times, for instance. 

Well, Figaro is so middle-class that his kitchen is too small for a table. Still, “kitchen table” makes a legitimate, if dusty, metonymy—a trope that takes a little thing and makes it represent big things (White House = presidency; rimless glasses = bubble-headed veep candidate). In this case “kitchen table” stands for the cherished middle-class home and its internal communications. 

Around the kitchen table, Sarah Palin didn’t make a complete ass of herself. Therefore, she won the debate. (The winking was creepy, though.) 

Snappy Answer: He’s not such a maverick around the conference table, either.

AuthorFigaro | Comment9 Comments |
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Reader Comments (9)

Ok, Figaro, maybe you can settle this. For the life of me, in spite of reading both entries in the Encyclopedia of Rhetoric, I don't understand the difference between metonymy and synecdoche. Can you clear it up?
October 10, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterKarol
You were just waiting for me to buy your book before you abandoned this website weren't you? It can't be coincidence.
January 15, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterBenny Fingers
While it was fun to poke holes in the "Shrub", it would be lovely to get your take on the voluminous rhetoric coming out of the current administration. The book was wonderful!
March 25, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterFrost
Ma tu parli italiano?
June 12, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterGiuseppe
away for long, not coming back?
October 7, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterabarro
Nice post but I don't understand the difference between metonymy and synecdoche.
Can you elaborate ..
Thanks
May 28, 2010 | Unregistered Commentergrow taller magic
it would be lovely to get your take on the voluminous rhetoric coming out of the current administration. The book was wonderful!
May 30, 2010 | Unregistered Commenterorganic grass killer
Interesting review,
Thanks for sharing.
September 9, 2010 | Unregistered CommenterFlirttipps
Figure of speach serve fresh means that the style in which we live. Personality is tottaly depend upon this.
April 15, 2012 | Unregistered Commenterjomthomas101

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