As to jests. These are supposed to be of some service in controversy. Gorgias said that you should kill your opponents' earnestness with jesting and their jesting with earnestness; in which he was right. Jests have been classified in the Poetics. Some are becoming to a gentleman, others are not; see that you choose such as become you.
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- Oct 2013
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rhetoric.eserver.org rhetoric.eserver.org
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rhetoric.eserver.org rhetoric.eserver.org
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Gorgias said that you should kill your opponents' earnestness with jesting and their jesting with earnestness;
This will only work, though, if your audience looks to you as some sort of authority figure - if you don't seem to know what you're talking about, I think that doing what Gorgias suggests would only make you look foolish.
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