Permanence and Change: An Anatomy of Purpose, Third edition

I purchased this book for a Master's class devoted to Kenneth Burke. The semester long course was a teaser. Burke will take longer to study.I thought this was a perfect starter book and this is the first one we read. I felt I was 'listening' to Burke talk out loud on paper. He brought forth so many ideas that he would later develop and some he would change or not develop. I was particularly interested in the scapegoat mechanism though that isn't addressed in depth.I felt like I 'saw' Burke get the ah ha moment that would eventually develop into Dramatism and his thoughts on POV (action, scene, etc).In this particular work Burke walks through a lot of ideas. In other words he through everything against the wall to see what sticks. Great book.

Thanks!

I bought this book for my class on rhetorical criticism. The book itself is good but you have to have an understanding of Burke or you will get lost.

This is perhaps Burke's most fascinating work. A lot of his stuff is a slog--this one is worth a read.

It is an awesome book about rhetorics in writing.

Gotta love Burke.

Getting a radical start on anything.At the beginning of Kenneth Burke's book, Permanence and Change/An Anatomy of Purpose (1954, 1965, 1984), the orientation of critics is suspicious of how trained a critic should be:one's very abilities can function as blindnesses. (p. 7).I was so smart when I was young that I considered myself fully qualified to be radical at an early age. My father was a minister, but I considered most of the reasons given by Americans for considering themselves Christians part of the higher swindle that serve the scheme of social control of apple pie activities. I was still involved in a church while I was a student at the University of Michigan College of Engineering because singing in the church choir was a skill I enjoyed. I was not involved in any system of finance, as Burke makes a point about those in business:Veblen generally restricts the concept[of trained incapacity] to the case ofbusiness men who, through long trainingin competitive finance, have so builttheir scheme of orientation about this kindof effort and ambition that they cannot seeserious possibilities in any other system ofproduction and distribution. (p. 7).Fight or flight is a range of options that lie behind Burke's discussion of escape as an activity or as a fate that can be applied to those who were:always trying to escape from lifeor avoid realities, (p. 8).For social control, Christianity is often pictured as a humble way to behave. The meek shall inherit the earth when the tough guys wipe each other our or get wiped out by the wealthy. In literature:the poets symbolized their resentmentin many ways;and any kind of symbolizationthat did not suit the critic'sparticular preferences wascalled an escape. (p. 8).Karel Marx expected religion to be the opiate of the masses. People can be reasoning about their own rituals or rationalizing symbolic actions as representing what God intends to do even if the people who have gained control of traditional institutions raise new questions like David Koresh wondering at what age Jesus would turn children into mothers of new Branch Davidians. Association and transference are examined by Burke as a context for experiments that involve conditioning.The entire experience of American culture as a sense of monstrosity clinging to marginal thinking for an electronic market in a global financial system that lacks anything that functions as money after being flooded by the gambling debts taking the form of deri9vative contracts on everything that can go up, down, or sideways in free markets ought to be covered by Part I, Chapter III, Occupational Psychosis. Just for an exercise in thinking, I would rather skip to a section on Nietzsche in Part II.Glorifying the problematical in art was adopted by disciples of Nietzsche, but the art trips on itself if:the compete establishmentof the problematical would makeglorification impossible. On the whole,they all seized upon the same device:stressing the state of tension in itself,picturing the dangers and discomfortsinvolved in maintaining it, hence relyingupon the basic military equipment in manas their last source of appeal (though differingwidely in their selection of the symbolswhich would serve as the channels in which thisoriginal biological psychosis would run). (pp. 87-88).Nietzsche's later style islike a sequence of darts.Indeed, at first I tried toexplain it to myself as asimple conversion of hisfighting, hunting attitudeinto its behavioristicequivalent. His sentencesare forever striking out atthis and that, exactly likea man in the midst of game,or enemies. They leap witha continual abruptness andsharpness of naming, whichseems to suggest nothing somuch as those saltations bywhich cruising animals leapupon their prey. (p. 88).Burke thinks Nietzsche's style led him to the term "Perspective by Incongruity," (p. 88). Oswald Spengler grouped periods in various civilizations at times that included "as a culture decayed" (p. 89). The style of writing uses "the same constant reordering of categories that we find in Shakespearean metaphor." (p. 90). Somehow, in the host of:new insights by such deliberate misfits.The individualism of fiction and poetrywas mild as compared with theindividualism of science, ever inquest of new ways for characterizingand classifying events. (p. 91).Consensus seeks a basis on which some thinkers can be considered more radical than others, but in a situation which is hopping back and forth like the finger finger end of a cosmic pogo stick up, each incident becomes more individual than the last, but Bergson is hoping:Metaphysics in this sense,he holds, is the mere solvingof pseudo-problems, as themetaphysician works out anelaborate system for reconcilingdifferences which never existedin the first place, but were inventedfor purposes of convenience. (p. 93).Burke considers conversion and regression in religion later in the book. Christ's conversations with thetheologians at the age of twelve,and the calm assurance to hisparents that he must be abouthis Father's business (p. 155)is a deliberate orientation:He was concerned withmatters of strategy, ofpresentation, apparentlybeing certain from thestart that his point of viewwas "correct." (p. 155).The kind of individual that has a herd instinct which is so strong that he is a founder of a distinct religion would probably be considered radical in modern American culture. If he set up something that functioned like real money, he would be accused of money laundering. A financial crisis that keeps sweeping itself under something less than sound accounting standards is like a stage in the life of the Saul/Paul transformation:When a man so vigorous as Saulhad of a sudden ceased to be Saul,in that dramatic interim betweenthe loss of his old self and his rebirthas Paul, we may expect to find his structureshaken to its very roots. (p. 156).The Christian doctrine aroseat a time of pronounced culturalmongrelism, when many distinctcultural integers had been broughtinto vital contact by the politicalunification of Rome. (p. 159).Instead of being vital, intrusion by Americans is likely to mess things up like God and God's own screw leaders all crashing down together as partners in America.

Burke argues that use of language ultimately determines human behavior and beliefs because symbolic forms both influence the mechanics of communication and also create patterns of interpretation, motives, and action based within cultural/linguistic ‘orientations.’ Part I of the book examines how orientations allow for a multiplicity of interpretive perspectives, how motives are informed by orientations, and how orientations limit one’s ability to interpret and experience the world differently (“trained incapacity”). Part II of Burke’s argument, which focuses on perspectives by incongruity, gives explanations as to why people resist change and how you can go about creating changes in orientation. Part III continues the conversation about ethics, motivation, perspective, etc. and offer applications of the first two parts through both hypothetical and literary examples. I find the appendix and afterword of this third edition particularly illuminating, and the introduction by Hugh Dalziel Duncan is hugely helpful in situating yourself within Burke's work through the most straightforward summary of concepts possible (but we are still dealing with Burke here, so don't expect it to be totally smooth sailing.)I admit that Burke is one of the more challenging thinkers I have ever read, and probably the most interesting American lit theorist in my humble opinion, but his work is rewarding and exciting to grasp. The fact that Burke has been forgotten for generations is an insult to the brilliance of his interdisciplinary work. Herein, you will find ideas that reflect everything from Butler's discussions of identity performativity, to Lévi-Strauss's bricolage, to Freire's conceptions about radical anti-oppressive critical pedagogy (though Burke is lacking in his pedagogical discussions, in my opinion.) Burke also references an incredible swath of thinkers, theorists, and philosophers at any given moment (everything from Plato to Marx to Dewey to Freud to Darwin). I find his discussion of rationalization vs reasoning (merely a matter of perspective) to be particularly poignant and evident in the real world. I also got a lot of enjoyment out of his perpetual jokes--and especially the ones about science as rationalization.Burke is an indispensable read, and truly, those who work through his volumes will have learned a stunning breadth of history and literature and philosophy and psychology. I would suggest 'Counter-Statement' as as precursor to this volume, as it will help you get situated within Burke's terminology. He uses words a little willy-nilly at times (logology, dramatism, and symbolicity are essentailly equivocated at different points, as are orinetation, discoure, culture, and ideology) so it is important to spend a lot of time paying attention to his definitions. His summaries are a little tricky because he shifts his meaning a hair each time. Don't try to grasp every idea or resolving every contradiction unless you want to wind up having a stroke. I would suggest reading this volume with careful annotations, and ideally in a group or class. It is a difficult read to get through on your own, and the concepts probably won't sink in all the way without the chance to discuss it. I read this book as a part of a doctoral course in English literature on Burke (along with 6 other volumes of his work), and despite having a professor who is a rather eminent Burke scholar, it was still a lot to soak in. Give Burke a chance and you will be astounded, but make sure you set yourself up for success in reading him so that you don't end up soured forever on this brilliant writer.Now, go forth and read Burke so you can become aware of your using/misusing language-animal nature!