Monday Night Raw Teaser: Gary Busey and an Ongian analysis of Umaga

It is absolutely imperative that everyone look at this video clip, which reflects exactly what went down at Raw last Monday in Memphis: once again, Shawn Michaels and Triple H get entirely screwed over. Harrogate swears to God, it's what always seems to happen to the proletariat in this country. A blue collar working man like Triple H just cannot seem to catch a friggin break. But Harrogate predicts that things are going to change this coming Monday. Like any soap opera worth its salt does on a Friday episode, Raw this Monday cannot but light it up, because it is their last chance to promote Summerslam. So, workers of the world, faithful readers of The Rhetorical Situation, Raw fans in general, prepare to be assaulted by populist rhetoric from wire to wire. Umaga will get his: Michaels and Triple H will ride high: Cena and Edge will ramp things up another notch, as will Flair and Foley. Oh yes. Harrogate can feel it. The fur shall fly.

But on to this edition of Harrogate's mid-week analysis. Given the events of the last three weeks, he has no choice but to put the spotlight on Umaga. Indeed, in the last three weeks Umaga has scored (albeit cheaply) victories against,in order: Jon Cena, Shawn Michaels, and Triple H.

But what would Walter J. Ong, rest his soul, have to say about this Umaga, who makes a living affecting a Samoan savage dwelling squarely "outside literacy"? In ways Umaga might even be considered a low-cultural representation of the Rousseauian noble savage.

But as Oxymoron pointed out to Harrogate on the phone this afternoon, Ong in Orality and Literacy was emphatic about distinguishing between Preliteracy (not Umaga) and Illiteracy (Umaga). Harrogate has wrestled (no pun intended) with this for more than a week, and has finally come to the conclusion that Ong would have found Umaga a pressing reminder of how much work needs to be done in terms of bringing that important distinction more vividly into the mass eye: for with Umaga's every wild gesticulation, his every breathtaking step towards losing control and pummelling fans, announcers, and pretzel salesmen with impunity, the distinction becomes more and more elided, and people assume that everyone before writing was a complete buffoon.

At this point Harrogate feels the need to remind readers that Gary Busey is a product of literate culture.

Harrogate hopes everyone is setting themselves up for a fantabulous weekend filled with wine, erotics, and song. And that they will cap that weekend off on Monday Night by tuning in to Raw, and following the live blog of Raw right here on The Rhetorical Situation, a blog that has won three major awards already.