Thread by @SuneAuken

A little inpromptu lesson on one of the enlightening corners of #genrestudies. You'll see very soon why I use this particular tweet for the lesson. 1/

https://twitter.com/DavidHenigUK/status/1347464135030824960

#AnneFreadman is well known among #genre researchers for her insistence on seeing genre as a loose open-ended system of interrelations and differences. A key point in her understand is her presentation of what she calls "not-statement". 2/

The point is most easily made in an example. If I say "a refrigerator is not a deep freezer" the statement will almost always be more meaningful than if I say "a refrigerator is not a rhinoceros." 3/

Why? Because it implies a connection between the two items compared, that is not present between the rhinoceros and the fridge. 4/

The freezer is a relevant contrast category precisely because the two share fundamental features: being both of them household appliances used for keeping food at a lower temperature. 5/

You may actually need the information that a fridge is not a freezer, you don't really need the information that it's not a rhino. 6/

Is #genre close to this? Oh, yeah. I literally stumbled over this example two minutes after reading Henig's tweet. Kudos to Paul Bernal for seeing the genre here. 7/

https://twitter.com/PaulbernalUK/status/1347433265590894592?s=20

Follow me this far? Ok, then let's return to Henig's tweet which relies on of two not-statements, masterfully intertwined. 8/

In the first (or would actually be the second; they are that connected) Henig points out that Merkel is not Johnson. The connecting element is obvious as they are both prime ministers of "their" respective countries. The difference however, is sharp. 9/

Because it IS the second not-statement. It is relevant to discuss why Johnson is not Trump, because they are alike. Trump is a relevant category for Johnson in a way he isn't for Merkel. 10/

A little oversharpened, but for the sake of demonstration: Johnson is the freezer to Trump's refrigerator - Merkel is the rhino. 11/

The implied point being, obviously, that even the fact that you need to write think-pieces about how Johnson is not Trump demonstrates a (guilty?) knowledge that they are enough alike to merit the not-statement. With Merkel it would simply be a "nah; nothing to see here". 12/

Since Trump, deep in his cloud coupcoup-land, has just committed high treason, the need for a not-statement concerning Johnson, and the likeness between the two implied by it, really should send shivers down the spines of the writers. 13/

The fact that apparently it doesn't; tells you all you need to know about them. Except possibly who pays them. 14/

Here endeth the lesson. If you keep an eye out for not-statement and remember that they almost always also imply familiarity between the objects, you'll find yourself many a #genre related eye-opener. 15/15