ABSTRACT
Objects that are initially in the background slowly reveal different qualities in their interactions with other objects, disclosing something of their hidden depths in a drama that unfolds without the imposition of narration. A composition pedagogy informed by Object Oriented Ontology (OOO) might cultivate this kind of rhetorical attunement, this openness to objects, as a heuristic. There are other potential uses of OOO for composition pedagogy as well. Laurie Gries, for instance, has developed a rhetorical methodology for tracing the rhetorical circulation of images across new media, describing their adventures into new configurations of signification. Ian Bogost's distinction between wonder and care itself comes close to the transcendental, as wonder becomes the guarantee of a touch that is both undeconstructed and indestructable. Wonder is the capacity to be surprised or astonished at the unfamiliar, the other, without judgment. It attunes the subject to objects in the world and to the interior experience of the self.
