Quick Notes About Reading Interests + Rhetoric 12.21.25

After analyzing the rhetorical devices and stylistic choices I wrote on my last essay, I realized that I had unconsciously tapped into the same power as the following individuals:

  1. Demosthenes

  2. Marcus Tullius Cicero

  3. Søren Kierkegaard

They were highly in favor of sovereignty and questioning anybody who used their superficial markers of status to dismiss and persecute the most original thinkers that challenged their versions of truth.

I was using highly advanced rhetoric such as Isocolon, Antimetabole, Reductio ad Absurdum, Antithesis, and Chiasmus—and it all flowed intuitively. I didn’t even know what these terms meant and had to look them up.

If I were to go back in time, I would have loved to talk to Demosthenes because he became a formidable orator in spite of his humble beginnings, and I view him as a kindred spirit because he loathed clever speech that said nothing and he had legendary grit that dispelled the faulted logic of pretentious tyrants. He was mocked by the cool kids of Athens. Even without having formal academic training, I can already tell he is my hero and someone who can bolster my own personal belief system.

So as a Christmas present to myself, I ordered these books:

  1. Selected Speeches by Demosthenes (Oxford World Classics)

  2. Defence Speeches by Marcus Tullius Cicero (Oxford World Classics)

  3. Either/Or: A Fragment of Life by Søren Kierkegaard (Penguin Classics)

I’m buying these in memory of my mother. Her birthday was December 25, 1960, and January 27, 2026 will mark an entire year without her.

Mommy Mouse, I’m buying these books because I know you want me to be free. To be fierce and bold and discard my meek identity—the same kind of meekness that killed you too soon. Mommy Mouse, I miss you, but I know you are at peace in Heaven, and Reepicheep and Peepiceek are keeping you company and they are hugging you right now. I wish more than anything that I could read these with you and talk with you about freedom from the absurdity and illogical nature of abusers. I wish more than anything that we could rise together above it all. But I know that God has raised you up and took you away from this cruel world that put you in despair.

And I promise I will not die from being too meek.

I’m super excited to read these and see how much more I can build upon after I’ve demonstrated an intuitive grasp of rhetoric and beliefs in favor of the sovereign individual. I’m also hoping that reading actual speeches from great orators will provide another perspective on what it takes to write sharper, more evocative, and more rhythmic poetry.

Christine Calandris