Feb 052019
IDENTIFY PATTERNS:
- Inclusion/Exclusion: In this particular genre, content is usually loosely defined. It has to be a piece of paper or plastic with words on it. Sizing down the genre to children’s cards reveals the common pattern of using bright or pleasing colors, and the words written inside are in reference to the reader (i.e. “you, we, us”). Moving further, within the genre of birthday cards for children, there must be mention of the occasion. The inside of the card does not require anything but words, but often the outside contains a cartoon or a graphic. Cards that are typically singled-out are those that use stickers, included prizes, pop-up book technology (no idea how to describe that, sorry), audio recordings or music. These are still considered cards, but they are their own sort of subgenre within the public eye, being more on the side of gimmicks than anything else.
- Appeals: Often the only appeals are that of pathos, being emotional. Cards are different than books; even though they are technically reading material, you can read an entire card and not need to glance any exterior meaning from the words mentioned – unless there are words written after-the-fact by the sender from within – making the genre easily and, one could argue, purposefully disposable. The cards sell themselves. You can never buy a card without having read it, and if you do, you’re maybe probably the laziest person on the planet. They appeal to emotions as a genre, but they never reach any deeper than “Hope you have a good one.”
- Structure: That’s easy. It’s poetry. Poetry doesn’t need to rhyme, but it helps if it does. Some parts of the genre include cards that begin with something on the outside and then fulfill a resolution immediately on the inside. If your card lasts longer than 10 lines, it’s probably not a card. It’s more like a letter or something.
- Format: The organization is almost always the same with few exceptions: Graphic print on the front, emblem/barcode/nothing on the back, and inside a few lines planted dead center on the page. Common graphics include animals, mascots and cartoonish humans. Almost all children’s’ cards are done in flat colored linework without shading.
- Sentences: Most, if not all, contain sentences that begin in one line and end in another. It emulates poetry without requiring any of the weight or nuance of poems. Rhyming isn’t required, but when it is used, it’s typically a one after the other format. (Example: A, B, C, B.) For greater appeal, they use simple words.
- Diction: The tone of the writer is typically patronizingly sweet or sarcastic without cynicism. In some cards, it’s a sweet little note from one person to another. In others, you can tell a group of executives were trying to market a card to a very, very specific type of person.
ANALYZE PATTERNS:
- What it says about the genre: Behind this genre are cynically minded people trying to appeal to “the average person.” Relatable text and memorable figures are used to gain favor from the true audience – those who purchase the cards, not the people the cards are meant for. In this particular case, it seems that we’ve been mentally conditioned by companies into thinking that a card is a requirement for a holiday. Americans expect a store-bought card more than a handwritten letter these days, and I think that says something about how reliant on companies and capital our society really is. If, today, people were to suddenly decide to eliminate this waste of paper all together, there would be an empty space left behind. People find value in this sort of thing, as worthless as it may truly be upon closer examination. The act of giving and receiving these cards is a complete fabrication, built on the idea that you, the average American, do not have time to hand-write a note to someone. However, the industry has evolved into giving pretty pictures and words to people – keep in mind, children are people, too, even if they sometimes are singled out for their age – who are completely unable to grasp the concepts presented to them from within the objects. Add sparkles, add fur, add stickers, add cut-outs, add pop ups…none of these things fix the underlying issue that children cannot read, yet we give them this supposedly heartfelt reading material.
- Performance: By taking part in this ritual, we further delude ourselves into believing that we require something we do not in order to tell someone our own feelings. This genre can contain both detailed illustrations lovingly handcrafted by artists and slapped-together graphics stripped from royalty free photograph websites. It is assumed of the masses that by handing over these cards to and from each other that we’re making statements of love and affection when, really, all of that can be bypassed by doing it ourselves. The concepts behind the subgenre of birthday cards, especially ones aimed towards young children pre-reading age, is a tower swaying in the wind, build on a fault line of laziness and corporate greed, and simply by analyzing its structure, it’s easy for anyone to see where the issues lie. Now…how to fix it? I’m not so sure.