Writers Block & Logic
tags:
brain teaser, logic, writing
MFA Candidate: It has been established that over 80 percent of writers who use amphetamine salts have a history of experiencing writers block at the peak of their careers. Such evidence would seem to prove that using amphetamine salts leads to writers block.
Professor: The phrase “Writer’s Block” would serve our purposes better if it carried a meaning more akin to “Butcher’s Block.” A Wrtier’s Block is such a slab upon which chopping and cutting of a text is performed. In other words, when a story, essay, or poem is on the “Writer’s Block,” it is going through the revision and editing stages of composition. Write on!
The Professor’s reply to the student’s argument relies on which one of the following argumentative strategies?
a) offering evidence suggesting that the statistics the student cites in support of his conclusion are inaccurate.
b) undermining the credibility of his conclusion by showing that it is a statement from which implausible consequences can be derived.
c) providing an example to show that not everything that induces writers block is counterproductive.
d) demonstrating that the student’s line of reasoning is flawed because of the student’s misguided use of the phrase Writer’s Block.
e) calling into question the possibility of ever establishing causal connections between the statistics about amphetamine salt users and writers block.
(For those with superstitious dispositions, if you supply the correct answer in the comments, you are assured never to fall victim to the type of writers block the student discusses here; rather, you will always feel motivated to chop any unfinished piece of writing on The Writer’s Block.)
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leave a comment Free Expression & Logic
tags:
brain teaser, Elif Shafak, Free Expression
Elif Shafak writes novels in Turkish and English. When writing in Turkish, she rejects the rationalized, disenchanted, centralized, Turkified language put in front of her. Turkish language has endured changes due to modernization and ideologies of ultra-nationalism. Shafak maintains that words of Persian, Arabic, or Sufi origin have been purged from modern Turkish language in order to build a unified modern Turkey that disassociates itself from its Ottoman past. Shafak is a feminist who is attached to Islamic, Jewish, and Christian heterodox. Her writing voice has been described as acerbic. Her fictional characters say and do bold things that get their author playing defense in Turkey’s criminal court. When writing in English, Shafak faces the harshest criticism from Turkish nationalists who regard Shafak’s language choice as “cultural betrayal.” Shafak writes about taboo subjects, such as the role of women and the history of Armenian minority in Turkey. An agent committed to literature in translation has said, “most writers that are any good would get into trouble with Turkish authorities.” Shafak’s new novel The Bastard of Istanbul will be released in the U.S. on January 18. That’s tomorrow. I’ve already ordered it.
The statements above, if true, support which one of the following inferences?
a) The Turkish nationalists earnestly embrace modernization and regard mystic traditions as backward and a barrier to progress.
b) To offend Turkishness, a writer’s voice must be acerbic; likewise, if a writer wants to be any good, she should offend the Turkish authorities.
c) The prosecution of writers under Turkey’s Article 301 is being used more and more against critical minds precisely because things have been changing rapidly in Turkey.
d) When a novelist writes bilingually, she will confront complications that are not always linguistic in nature.
e) Purging Turkish of words that are of Persian, Arabic, or Sufi origin have successfully disassociated Turkey from its Ottoman past.
(If you know the answer and leave it in a comment, you will earn some browning points with the gods and goddesses of free expression!)
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The Subtle Art of Logical Reasoning
tags:
brain teaser, fiction, standardized testing
If you are someone who likes to wrap your head around mind-teasers and puzzles, the story below offers you a game to play. Please read this argument: All Xylophones are not Ukuleles. Zorra plays a Ukulele. All women who do not answer to the name…
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