J.D. Salinger, the American novelist and short story writer died at 91.  He is perhaps most quickly remembered for The Catcher in the Rye and its protagonist, Holden Caulfield.  I enjoyed his short stories as collected in Nine Stories.  My most memorable passage from his writing is this from Franny and Zooey:

“One other thing.  And that’s all.  I promise you.  But the thing is, you raved and you bitched when you came home about the stupidity of audiences.  The goddam ‘unskilled laughter’ coming from the fifth row.  And that’s right, that’s right — God knows it’s depressing. I’m not saying it isn’t.  But that’s none of your business, really.  That’s none of your business, Franny.  An artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else’s.  You have no right to think about those things, I swear to you.  Not in any real sense, anyway.  You know what I mean?”

During President Obama’s first State of the Union address, he specifically singled out the Supreme Court for public punishment for their recent decision that struck down a campaign financing law.  Here’s the NYT description.

While he was in a scolding mood, the president did not spare the Supreme Court, which is usually part of the pageantry of the State of the Union but not part of the substance.

With Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and other members of the court seated in front, Mr. Obama, a constitutional lawyer, scolded the court for last week reversing “a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections.”

Chief Justice Roberts’s expression did not change, but, as Democratic Senate leaders stood behind him and applauded, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. scowled noticeably and shook his head.

It was a remarkable moment to many. “I have never seen the president go after the Supreme Court,” said Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa and a 35-year veteran of Congress.

While I consider myself a Persuasion Wizard, I must adopt a humble stance here in the face of a Greater Master, Mr. Obama.  I cannot fathom the persuasion strategy behind this rare, public punishment of the leading members of an entire Branch of Government.  Given the context of Mr. Obama’s play, it is apparent that it was volitional, planned, and highly valued.  A State of the Union address is a monster communication event that attracts Super Bowl-like attention.  He dropped all that on the Supreme Court right in their faces while the world watched.

I wish I knew what Obama seeks to change with the Supreme Court because his comments can only be understood as a direct influence attempt.  My experience as a researcher and just as a plain old human being advises that public punishment like this is an extremely serious play that both delivers and initiates consequences that do not go away immediately.

As Senator Tom Harkin commented, he’s never seen anything like this in 35 years of Senate experience watching these speeches.  Mr. Obama is held in some circles to be a master orator and the leader of Persuasion Central.  What’s the genius behind this rare persuasion play?

Consider the possibility that Mr. Obama is a persuasion novice – and given the failure of his efforts at health care reform with super majorities in the Congress, that is not a crazed hypothesis.  Consider, too, the impact of his persuasion at gaining the Olympics for Chicago, and for climate change policy at the United Nations, and helping Mrs. Coakley gain the Massachusetts Senate seat, and the GatesGate beer summit with Professor Gates, and on and on.  Hey, he’s picking the New Orleans Saints for the Super Bowl; I’d be afraid for the Big Easy.

If so, remember the Rules.

All Bad Persuasion Is Sincere.

You Can Get Farther with a Kind Word and a Gun than with Either Alone.

It’s about the Other Guy, Stupid.

Persuasion Is Strategic or It Is Not.

And, finally.

Power corrupts persuasion.

Many years ago while reading Harold Bloom’s book, The Western Canon, I lit up when reading Bloom’s shortening of Oscar Wilde’s aesthetic observation that all bad poetry is sincere.  Not only is this useful for understanding Art or Poetry or Film or Whatever You Prefer, but the application to persuasion seems obvious, too.  And that is the source for my Rule that All Bad Persuasion Is Sincere.

Now, I want to recommend to you other aesthetic essays for your persuasion consideration.  Sure, there’s a big difference between writing a poem and writing advertising copy.  And, no, a PowerPoint presentation isn’t a Film.  There are huge differences between Beauty and Persuasion, but it’s the similarities that are useful.  Consider Aesthetics as a metaphor and see what it provokes in Persuasion.  Read them twice as Nietzsche divines; once like Dionysus (intoxication), once like Apollo (revery).

Longinus, On the Sublime.

Aristotle, Poetics.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Poet.

Oscar Wilde, Critic As Artist.

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy.

Finally, consider Mary Cassatt’s A Girl Arranging Her Hair and how it creates Beauty.

People are buzzing about the impending release of a new Apple tablet.  Where do they fit in a world of desktop, laptop, netbook, ebook reader, smartphone?  If there’s a killer app for the tablet then maybe it will be the New New Thing.  I think the killer app would be application software for creative writers who want to combine the Basic Forms text, graphics, animation, audio, and video into a new form of a Moving Book.

Currently, creative minds cannot easily express themselves in these combinations of Basic Forms.  No software allows writers to seamlessly enter any Form into a larger Template, then edit the work like it was a Word doc or a Flash swf and on and on.  I would love to be able to produce a work combined Forms without looking like something on the New York Times website.

Consider, R. Crumb’s latest print book, The Book of Genesis.

Crumb uses the comic strip Form that combines text, image, and graphics to tell the story of The Beginning.  It’s a fabulous print book.  Now, imagine that expanded into a Moving Book.

Imagine any standard textbook executed in a Moving Book form.

Think about novels as Moving Books.

As long as people exist, text will be a standard form of expression, instruction, disclosure, and beauty.  Computers permit that text to expand meaning through coordinated and complementary use of the other Basic Forms.

But, we need the software for a Moving Book.

Dry Vodka Martini

• 1 shot, journalism
• 1 dash, persuasion
  
• 1 ice filled shaker
• stir in shaker, pour, then enjoy!

When Is a Resort Not a Resort?

Failing hotels struggling to survive seek to employ Magic Words to save themselves from further declines.  They’ve discovered that many large conferences are staying away from hotels that are Resorts because their employers will not reimburse stays at places called Resorts, due to the uproar over failed Wall Street businesses having meetings at Resorts.

Resort once was a Magic Word that attracted clients, but now that Magic Word doesn’t work.  So, hotels are using a new Magic Word:  Hotel.  And it works.

Hotels that drop the Black Magic Word of Resort in favor of the White Magic Word, Hotel, are seeing rises in their bookings.  Of course, nothing else about the property changes.  Just the Magic Word.

When Is Thin, Fat?

A Mayo Clinic researcher has found a new threat to your health.  He calls it, Normal Weight Obesity.  You might be NWO if your body mass index (BMI) is in the healthy range of 20-24, but your body fat percentage is too high.

This is not exactly a news flash to health professionals and a lot of just plain folks.  You can have a good body weight and still be in terrible health.  But, until now there had been no Magic Word to describe this obvious thing.

If you maintain a good weight, but don’t exercise, maybe used to smoke, maybe drink, you’ve probably heard warnings from a physician that you need to eat better and get around more or else you’ll develop something like diabetes or another metabolic problem.  But, who can sell something that vague?

Imagine now your kindly doc shakes his head while looking over your chart, offers a sad smile, and declares, “You’ve got NWO, you know, that Normal Weight Obesity.”

Of course, you still won’t get off your butt.  You’ll just ask for a pill.  And Doc will have one for you.

Normal Weight Obesity, the Bad Good Weight!