Tatiana Gordon - Gladwell

When I read the Gladwell piece I thought that overall the scenes were relevant and I was able to get a clear picture of Cesar and his training methods. However, one part of the article seemed unnecessary to me at first. The parallel Gladwell used between the movement therapists that work with autistic children and Cesar made me feel a bit distracted because I initially felt that a lot of time or space was used to develop the imagery (the therapy sessions) for that parallel. I understand its overall relevance but when I read the article for the first time I was thrown off and became unsure of how the article would progress. I do understand that including Tortora's and Eric's therapy sessions provided imagery that could help audiences understand what was being said about Cesar, but, I wasn't certain and still am not sure if it was totally necessary. I felt that the commentary the movement therapist provided was enough to sustain the point that Gladwell was making. On another note, I really enjoyed the way Gladwell ended the piece, tying in Cesar's "epiphany" to an actual case that he had. I felt that it demonstrated the entire point that owners have to be willing to change their behaviors as well in order to have healthy and happy pets.

Comments

[Amber Cleave]

I was just thinking about the idea of blogging in relation to articles. If Gladwell discusses his pieces by blog, and thus the reader gets a better, more well rounded sense of Cesar, then isn't there something lacking in his profile? I almost feel like he is cheating, or taking a short cut. The article should fulfill the readers questions and needs in order to understand Cesar. We shouldn't have to go to an outside source in order to get the whole picture. I understand that Gladwell's article wasn't exactly a profile, but if blogging is become a trend "in addition" to the articles/profiles, then us poor readers will never get the whole picture unless we read about the articles. Now it's not enough to just read an article?

[Tatiana Gordon]

I understand your concern about blogs. I am also a bit concerned but I think blogs may be a good thing because it gives authors the opportunity to give readers information that otherwise wouldn't fit in the magazine or journal that their profile/ article was being published in. I think the readers that do read author's blogs are more likely than not going to be fans of their work or their style of writing or the literary journalism field, so these readers are going to be a bit more informed and have questions that the average reader wouldn't. I think that blogs might be a great venue to appease these fan's demands. That way, instead of being bombarded with emails that the author would have to answer one on one and possibly on the same topic, the author can answer a question in a venue where everyone who wants to can read and find an answer.
I don't necessarily think that the article itself is incomplete, I think this just makes it a bit more interesting to analyze why the author decided to include certain information/ scenes and keep others out of the final product.

[Nicole Wurzell]

I agree with your concern amber, because i also tend to think that we should find some sense of fulfillment in just reading the article alone. but on the same token, i think that tatiana is right - blogs compliment the article because they allow the reader to get a more personal look at both the piece and its author. whether the blog offer information that did not or could not go into the article, or gives personal info on the authors experience, or just allows the authro to reflect on their work - i think it makes blogging an amazing tool for the reader, because we are allowed more access to the piece/author than we would have had by just reading the piece on its own. thus i don't think that we will be missing anything if we don't read blogs, but they do make a nice addition.

[Yao Xu]

I agree with Tatiana because I also thought the part about the autistic movements threw me off from article and it confused me as to whether Gladwell was doing a profile on Cesar or provide information on the movements. I did notice the large amount of research that went into this article because I would have never thought studying the Dog Whisperer's movements affected the way the dogs reacted to him. I liked how the end of the article gave a sense of authority on Cesar's part, to not just the dogs but also the owners. It made me feel like Cesar was a godly man to have the courage to face dogs and criticize the owners. Interestingly enough, I am not a fan of dogs and yet I got pulled into this article due to Gladwell's clear descriptions.

[Marites Yao]

I also agree with what everyone has said about blog's but in the end I side more with how blogs open discussion to unknown. I find it in general nice to have that source of information to get a fuller understanding of the story whether I enjoyed it or not. More importantly it helps clarify any misinterpretation. I feel that each piece of information contributed should not entirely change your opinions, but you should form your own based on what you know. In this case, I enjoyed how bits and pieces of information were able to be brought into the work and create a story within a story.