Saturday, April 30, 2005

4/21 & 4/26 & 4/28 Individual Paper Presentations

Individual Paper Presentations took two and a half class periods to run through; but, as usual, the insights into other students' interests was worth all the time that it took. Thanks for all your heard work Oral Trads spring 2005! These will not all be in complete grammatical sentences...sorry for you grammar goddesses out there.

Tracy-Oral and literate cultures in Tolkien. Ents are the only truly oral group in the books and they cannot forget anything. Men of Rohan are talked about as being oral but the king learned how to read and so they are tainted. Elves and Dwarves have many oral traditions but they write everything down. Dwarves write everything down because they tend to die before they can deliver messages. People of Gondor (Gondorians) are being killed by writing. Printing Press of middle earth developed by the bad guys.

Faith-Noah's Ark story on tape. Book on tape gives life to a story through verbalization. Enhancing memory through listening to people talking. Seeing less effective than hearing for a lot of people. Books on tape are more oral, but the story is recorded and played back with the same words each time.

Heather-Inspired by movie "Waking Life" which puts forth the idea that words are symbols and they are dead. Saussure says emotions cannot be expressive enough or make the same meaning for each person. No words are adequate to describe love for example. Feeling is understanding and writing is only a dead representation and will never be good enough. However, it is through the development of a literate culture that we are able to get closer to an adequate description/representation of emotion. Songs are the best example of this.

Jeramiah-Wrote the "Complete Idiot's Guide to Oral Traditions". Discussed the stories of Joel Chandler Harris (Brier Rabbit and Brier Fox) because the stories look like they were written with Ong's nine characteristics of orality in mind. Importance of the "flat character" emphasized.

Nikole-One must think memorable thoughts. With writing we have lost the oral storyteller and lost many feats of memory but with writing also came an enhanced ability to create. Biggest sin, even within the writing culture, remains forgetting.

Stacy-Writing restructures consciousness. Writing increases efficiency but carries with it less emotion than face-to-face contact. Discussed the imperialistic nature of the movement from orality to literacy citing Alexander's conquests.

Kristi-Just returned from a primarily oral culture in Guinea. Had to learn the local language by immersion--Pular language. No standardization and no alphabet. They are trying to apply Pular to the Roman alphabet but none of the sounds quite match up to the letters. Therefore, stories being written down with the Roman alphabet do not convey full richness of the language. A man came up with an alphabet for the Milinke language in the 1940s and it's working just fine for them.

Allison-Discussed the Jabberwocky poem in Through the Looking Glass because she noticed as she was reading it how much of an oral poem it is, despite the fact that it's written down in a book. Portmanteu form of language is eminently adaptable in its creation of a distinct way of thinking about things. Humpty the Linguist has the abilitiy to have an entire conversation using just one word..."glory".

Cara-Wonders about Ong's assertion that writing can "enrich the human psyche and enhance the mind". Structure of language and writing can be taken further than orality. Thinking in terms of the "other" can be achieved in writing.

Bryan Davis-Discussed the fictionalized audience. In order to have a fictionalized audience the speaker must have an imagined sense of what he wants the audience to get out of his performance. The types of audience and the types of medium have an effect on how the speaker goes about doing this.

Josh-Discussed that in India, drumming is a lot like the oral poems of the past. There are formulas of beat that are just known and can be used/inserted into compositions.

Brian J-One cannot fully immerse in an experience without sound. Brian disagrees with this statement and cites sign language as an equally powerful alternative to sound. With sign language there is no developmental delay versus learning speech and sight is the morefully developed sense. Signing increases brain function.

Courtney-Hypertext of Finnegans Wake section. Check the project out at http://hypertextondtandgracehoper.blogspot.com. (Really awesome. I thought abot doing this but chickened out. )

Ed-Ong's memorization ideas. Oral narrators think they are saying the same story the same way but they never are. To incorporate the audience matters so verbatim recitation is not all important. Body connected to presentation. Stress on presentation not just memorization. Oral cultures remember things but they don't just spit knowledge back out right away. They ruminate on whatthey learn and then speak about it after a while.

Justin-Orality and Middle Earth. Orality is something you must have but it cannot stand alone. Gondor has lost orality and is dying. Rohan is oral with a relationship to writing as well. Writing not "bad" for Tolkien. Gandalf finds information in records. Writing as the language of the dead.

Debbie-Orality and literacy in The Tempest. Prospero moving toward literate, Caliban oral. Prospero able to keep power because of his book/learned magic. Caliban has a natural relationship with the island; his knowledge is of springs, trees, food. Like Kane's idea of oral cultures, Caliban can hear the songs that the earth is singing. (Speech about the island with Stephano and Trinculo) Prospero enslaving nature, making boundaries. Shift toward literacy creates a tension between man and nature.

Mick-Thoughts on the course and the texts. Ong was hard to nderstand as a whole, Yates was dense, Kane was awesome. Group presentations were fun. Individual presentations helped him, especially the chess one. He's a better player now. This class shows up EVERYWHERE! (It's true!)

Jeramiah-Entertains us with a half-time show, including a rendition of "Boy Named Sue"

Dustin-This one will be a little difficult to follow...Vico says we go through cylces of time/history: CHAOS (darkness)-->GODS (mnemosyne and muses)--->HEROES (Odyssey, worship of gods)-->MAN (Shakespeare)-->CHAOS (us and the Internet). Memory a decaying process. Decay leads to chaos and chaos leads to the birth of gods which mens soon we will have men becoming gods...??? maybe.

Valerie-Memory theater of Tarot cards. 4 virtues that we talk about in memory: Prudence, Temperence, Justice, and Strength, these cards are the leaders of the four card suits. Archetypal images.

Shauna-Ong and Bushisms. 9 characteristics of Ong. Close to human life world (swiss cheese), flyting of politics fits in with the agonistically toned section. Bush is an example of secondary orality.

Opai-Why we should be concerned with orality. "Practicality of oral traditions", examples of how oral traditions are used in the real world. Historical records and memory maps. Maps a transition from oral to literate.

Juliet-Power of what we see. Four short films on 9/11 were way more poweful than reading about 9/11. Modern technology makes these documentaries possible. Writing-->secondary orality of a purley visual medium. Video as our means of communication. We can all do tehse things with film.

Wayne-Borges and memory's role. Idea of a microcosm reflecting the reality of a macrocosm. (Examples, games like chess a small game of war/death. Mousetrap play in Hamlet an aesthetic interpretation of King Claudius' actions) Memory a way to bring meaning to chaos.

Cindy-Eidetic is a photographic memory. Phenomenon mostly in children between 7-12 years old. Tying in with Ong and Yates.

Stephanie-Grimm Brothers, how accurate were their transcriptions. Most stories collected from middleclass to upper-middle class women. Many liberties taken in regard to editing. Sexson says, READ Marina Warner's Annotated Grimms.

Sophie-Orality in Tolkien. Pre-chirographic and pre-typographic elements. Libraries at Isengard and in the Dwarf rooms. Power of language in Tolkien, Gandalf speech at Council makes the sky darken.

Jennifer-Explored the connection between museums and Muses. Orality is infiltrating the museum experience in that they are becoming more interactive rather than passive. Use of technology is helping this along. Changes in museums are awakening memory.

Kelly-Memory. Grandmother with Alzheimers could not remember anything short term but could remember and retell great stories in TONS of detail. Intersting parts of memory such as, studying for hours reading material over and over and not being able to remember it. Contrasted to one special dinner with one special person one time that you can remember forever.

Hannah-Connections between oral storytelling and an actor's mind. In acting there are two mind frames 1)Ability to feel the audience 2)Ability to see onese;f from the outside. Ong defines acting as secondary orality because it is generally a recitation from a script. Read Victor Turner.

Wes-Psychology of the Trickster. Native American story of Bear and Rabbit. Illusion of an oral performance.

Zac-iconography and its meaning an progression. Walkabout memory technique uses landmarks.

Samantha-Shel Silverstein. Idea of literacy striving for orality. Some writing (poetry, Wake) intended to be oral. Seeking orality through literacy once we are fully immersed in the literate world.

TEST INFO!!!!!

1)Ong Chapter 7

2)Yates Chapter 9

3)Individual and Group Presentations

4)EJOURNALS!!!!!

In closing, make things memorable.

4/19/2005 and 4/21/2005 (Memorozations)

Here is the list of what people memorized for our final memory feats...

Cara: Wildflowers found in Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Colorado
Allison: 50 Top Artists (according to "Rolling Stone")
Debbie: 50 Simpson's characters
Ed: German and English translations of Goethe's "Prometheus"
Opai: Tallest Mountains in the World within a poem
Hannah: Religions of the World
Jennie: "Oh, The Places You'll Go" By Dr. Seuss
Brian: Monarchs of England from way back to present
Juliet: Presentation of "Foods I Often Crave"
Heather: 50 Greatest Albums of All-Time (I don't know according to whom)
Jeramiah: Top 50 Country Songs (according to Jeramiah)
Krisit: Parts of the Brain (including all the cranial nerves)
Faith: "Winkin, Blinkin, and Nod"
Valerie: Astrological Chart (signs, their planets, their elements)
Tracy: Interesting names of our moon and other moons in our solar system
Stacy: Past Kentucky Derby winners
Josh: Prison Song about a Garbage man...I think...
Lauren: Top 50 Universities in USA (MSU was neglected...)
Courtney: Snowboard model names and lengths
Jennifer: Last 56 winners of the Nobel Prize in lit (beginning with Jennifer's favorite...Hesse)
Wes: a poem by Shel Silverstein
Justin: The Books of the Bible
Wayne: T.S. Eliot's First Quartet (which, by the way, I had never read and fell in love with as he recited it)
Kelly: Past and Present Pet names
Jeremy: Heros and Heroines of Antiquity in Ulysses
Samantha: assorted poems--> Hardy's "The Man He Killed", Owen "Dulce Et Decorum Est", Hood "The Death Bed", Reed "The Naming of Parts"
Shauna: 50 Bob Marley Songs
Mick: Bobby Fisher's "Queen Sacrifice" chess game
Steph: 50 Cities of Germany
Nikole: Grocery List in alphabetical order

4/14/2005

Day 2 of Group Presentations: I don't have my Kane book with me right now so I'll go back and fill in details soon

Group 4: Group Four discussed Complementarity and acted out the myth in the book in order to do it.

Group 5: I have to say that group 5 was my favorite. They blindfolded the class and through conversation, recitation, and smells drew us in to the situation they had created. I think they were supposed to be at a bar/restraunt. The women were talking together most of the time and the men were talking together. Dustin (I think?) was reciting some Wake and people were telling stories. I loved it when Wayne said something about being reminded of his grandfather's pipe smoke, and then, moments later, the smell of pipe xmoke floated through the room. Awesome effect!

Group 6: This group told us a story using puppets and the oral tradition. They used epithets and repition and their story was antagonistically toned. They also kept it close to our human lifeworld by including Eminem and Donald Trump.:O) Sweet!

I didn't take notes during these presentations because I prefer to just experience them. Check out Debbie's site for more detail on these presentations. http://oraltraditionsdeb.blogspot.com

Saturday, April 23, 2005

4/12/2005

Today was the first day of our group presentations. Maps, Boundaries, and Dreams presented.

I am sorry to say, that due to some trouble getting all of my stuff together in order to be ready for my group (Dreams) I was unable to see the first two presentations. :O( I'm really bummed about that. So, for updating/refreshing on those groups, please see either Hanna or Nikole's notes pages.

The Dreams group began by setting the moOd with a little intorduction to Dreams. The potential for a dream to become a reality is always there. For the transition to take place, however, divine intervention is necessary.

I WILL FINISH THIS ASAP. :o)

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

4/7/2005

Our leader Shaman Sexson was unable to be with us today for he was enlightening minds in Havre. We met in our presentation groups to get our stuff together for Tuesday the 12th and Thursday the 14th's presentations.

4/5/2005 Exam Day

Today we took the test and corrected it in class. If you missed it, see Dr. Sexson. :O)

Saturday, April 02, 2005

Test Prep Class 3/31/2005

The test will cover Ong 4,5,6 and Yates 6, 7, 8; the "Re-membering Finnegan" article; and all class notes and performances. Please also visit Hanna, Nikole, and Opai's sites for notes.
Hanna: http://killernotes.blogspot.com/
Nikole: http://www.geocities.com/nikoledidier/index2.html
Opai: http://www.geocities.com/apabritabasu/

EPIC POEMS
1. What is it about Nikole that makes her every guy's wish? She likes to fish.

2. Wayne is the brain, we si-i-ing of Wayne. Kristi's poem.

3. What model did Tracy use for repetition? Leviticus, if read in the context of oral traditions it is hypnotizing.

4. Valerie swears the fish was "this big". Used the Odyssey as a model and had a theatrical and highly structured presentation.

5. Wayne used the pantoum structure as an inspiration. It is a structure that ensures that at the poem's conslusion every line has been repeated twice.

6. What, according to Aristotle, is the difference between an epic and a tragedy? Epics- episodic, redundant, too copious. Tragedy- coherently unified, short and organic with a single focus. Aristotle would like the Reader's Digest Condensed versions of books.

7. The reigning perfect peice of literature (if we believe Aristotle) for the 19th and 20th centuries is the Detective Story. It has conventions similar in all versions: murder, 'who dun it?', through Process Of Elimination we get the answer. Ong pg 144-148.

8. Ong pg 139 discussion of Freytag's pyramid.

9. What word could one use to sum up Finnegans Wake? Either mememorme, or, remember.

10. Who is the mad grandmother who stutters? GGRAMAD, Grammar, Geometry, Rhetoric, Arithmatic, Music, Astronomy, Dialectic. The 7 liberal arts.

11. The words 'in medias res' mean in the middle of things. Oral traditions begin in the middle contrary to Aristotle's ideal story with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

12. What epithet of Homer's which refers to women is used most often? of the lovely cheeks

13. "Amathia" means forgetting, to forget everything that is important. To be truly sinful is to be forgetful.

14. According to Ong, how does one authenticate a written document if one has just entered a literate/written culture? attach a symbolic object such as a sword, pg 96 in Ong

15. Ong discusses the issue of typographic space as in Easter Wings. The poem in this case takes on the shape of wings on the page. Ong page 126

16. Ong Chapter 4 is titled "Writing Resturctures Consciousness". What does that title mean? Idea that when you enter a written culture your consciousness is (and must be) completely restructured.

17. Corrections as Ong discusses them on pg 103. Oral performers do not admit mistakes or draw attention to them.

18. Ong's discussion of Plato on pg 103. Plato wrote in dialogue form, one person talking to another, yet, the dialogues are written texts NOT transcriptions of actual discussions.

19. Ong on pg 104 discusses that writing introduces introspectivity into our culture. With it, we became more interior and isolated. Also, on pg 106 Oral cultures are not hung up with spell checkers and dictionaries. Ong discusses the fantasy that language and the alphabet have to operate in ONE way only.

20. Ong pg 123... in the new world the book is a thing, not an utterance.

21. Ong pg 141: lengthy and climactic plot comes into being only with writing. pg 142: there is an incompatibility between the linear plot and oral memory, the thought of Epos is in remembered tradition. pg 144: ex/ the non-linear Marienbad. Print gives the need for closure.
***********************************************************************************
Dr. Sexson will send an email to us regarding what to study from Yates and any more Ong that he wishes us to ponder. I just received mine (1:15 Saturday afternoon).

Here is what he adds to these notes:

337 students: Please add the following areas of concern from Ong and Yates as preparation for the test on Tuesday.Ong, p. 145: Which gives us the firmest sense of "closure" : (a) print (b) writing (c) oral performance (d) filmOng: p. 146: Who else, besides Salman Rushdie, felt the need to declaim the written novel in order to reclaim the feel for the old orla narrator's world?Ong, 147. According to 2Corinthians, the spirit gives life, but the letter ________Ong, p. 148: The "round" character is valued most by which tradition, the oral or the written?Overwhelmingly, the symbols of Camillo's theatre tend to be from: (a) classical myth and the zodiad; (b) the Bible (c) the underworld images of the Middle Ages (d) Virgil's Aeneid.Read carefully the last paragraph of page 172 in Art of Memory and be prepared to answer questions about what a "Renaissance plan of the psyche" might mean.
Lull: be able to answer questions about Ramon Lull and his memory system as it relates to (a) neoplatonism (b) the abstract vs. images (c) movement (d) the Cabala (Kaballah). Google the term Cabala for more information.

3/24 and 3/29/2005

These two days were spent listening to each other's oral recitations of epic poetry about a classmate. I apologize if I misspell any names. :O(

Everyone did a SPECTACULAR job! I am so impressed by the talent in this class. Jeremiah sang a song, complete with a guitar and a chorus. Courtney also sang to the tune of everyone's favorite Christmas song: "Jingle Bells". I think that Courtney's poem got everyone involved the most. We got to sing along with part of her chorus everytime.

We were told of Wesley's battle with a big fist on the Yellowstone River on Halloween, and Valerie's journey to MSU after stealing the fire from a speech rival. Justin recounted Allison's desire for a Troll doll and Jennifer spoke of Kelly's "cornflower blues". Brian regaled us with the story of Stephanie's good times in Europe, while Stephanie charmed us with her tale of Brian's journey from the "alligator's bosom" to MSU.

There were many more and all were very well done. To see any that you may have missed, go up to the English office an look on the bulletin board to the left of the office entrance. I will post them there ASAP.

Valerie used Homer's Odyssey as her inspiration. Tracy modeled the book of Leviticus. I think also that Jeremiah had some definite role models in his presentation; however, I can't be sure which of the thousands of songs he most followed. Wayne used the pantoun poetry form in the composition of his poem.

Most of our stories used the convention "polytropos" which means "many turns".

The poet takes REALITY and tweaks it to make TRUTH.

We have given each other the gift of immortality according to Sexson. I have to say, that's pretty awesome.

Friday, April 01, 2005

3/22/2005

It's our first class period back after spring break. I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing week. We're closing in on the end of the semester now. :O)

Remember: Oral recitations of epic poems to one's soulmate will begin Thursday the 24th.

Today we discussed Dr. Sexson's "Re-membering Finnegan." Jeremy and Valerie began the period by wowing us with their recitation of part of the Prank Queen section of Finnegans Wake (no apostrophe please).

First we discussed the notion that Finnegans Wake (hereafter called Wake) was composed in a hypertext. That is, each layer is somewhat like a transparency upon another layer, in which the top text will every now and then have a 'hot' section/word. Click on that 'hot' section and you are transported somewhere else. Now, obviously, there was no Internet in Joyce's day, but Dr. Sexson relates that Joyce spoke about writing in layers. For example, the short phrase "riverrun past Eve and Adam" brings up issues of etymology, language associations, and intertextuality that one could explore further if one were so inclined. However, Sexson notes that this is more than a scholar's game. It is a major paradigm shift in communication. This, in a way, is a precursor to the shift from print to electricity.

Gestures are prior to writing and oral cultures make use of this. They know that something is lost when the gestures are not included in an oral performance.

No apostrophe in the title be cause an apostrophe is possessive. It claims ownership and has everything to do with the alienation and solitariness of the modern writer. Taking out the apostrophe, Wake is made communal and everyone can participate in it.

Wake contains everything. All the rivers of the world, all the fairytales, and all the big stories. However, it is still intelligible and accessible because Joyce makes reference to things and people with whom we are familiar. For example, Humpty Dumpty and his fall are within Wake. Although they seems a simple allusion within the text, Joyce's inclusion of them brings up our other associations with falls: Adam and Eve, Alice in Wonderland, Troy, Wallstreet, Newton's Apple.

Cyberspace has made Wake relevant and has had the power to awaken what we have forgotten.

Joyce's alphabet is "all for a bit" and he contends that the introduction of the alphabet alienated us from the way speech dances and relates to pictures.

The major difference between the Museum of the Rockies and the Altamira Caves is that at the MoR, there is a detached feeling. We cannot experience the knowledge, we only experience walking through the museum. At the Altamira Caves, however, something was inscribed on young initiates' nervous systems and they were left forever changed.
DON'T TOUCH vs. MUST TOUCH TO GET IN-TOUCH.

apotheosis: the divinization of a human being has something to do with Yates' notion of the movement from the practicality of memory to the mysticality of memory.

1st layer of dreams--> PERSONAL
Next layer---> COMMUNAL

Key: Electricity brings Wake to life.