Notes for Engl 337

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

2005-04-30T10:45:00.000-07:00

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)

2005-04-30T10:23:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

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

4/12/2005

2005-04-23T00:28:00.000-07:00

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)

4/7/2005

2005-04-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

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

2005-04-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

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

Test Prep Class 3/31/2005

2005-04-02T11:33:00.000-08:00

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

2005-04-02T10:19:00.000-08:00

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.

3/22/2005

2005-04-01T09:39:00.000-08:00

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.

3/10/2005

2005-03-30T00:22:00.000-08:00

We began the day with a discussion of our epic poems to each other. Dr. Sexson cited Judges chapter 5:24 as a good example of what we should do:

5:24 Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Herber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent.

This shows praise and repitition; two things to be included in our odes.

Remember way back to the question of the 7 Liberal Arts? Dr. Sexson now remembers to enlighten us as to their meaning. Stephanie has done some research and has found that the mnemonic GGRAMAD (stuttering, mad grandmother) works to help us remember:
Grammar
Geometry
Rhetoric
Aritmatic
Music
Astronomy
Dialectic

Reading aloud gives voive to the word and is more authentic than reading to oneself.

ONG
pg 80-81: Writing is a technology; it is not natural. Speech, on the other hand, is natural.
pg 82: Although technology of every kind is artificial, it has become commonplace in our society and we have interiorized it. Technologies no longer degrade our lives; rather, they enhance them.
pg 89: There are many scripts but only one alphabet. Scripts (pictoral representations, hieroglyphs) alphabet (mimics sound, is phonetic). The alphabet is the great democratizer allowing information to be accessed by all people. Despite this, the alphabet can also be seen as tyrannizing in that only 26 individual letters contain and the information in all our books.
pg 92: With references to the word "glamor" Ong argues that writing is secret and mysterious in comparison to orality.

We need to get back some of that magic of the written word. When was the last time you were amazed that you could read? It's been a long time for me.

We all know the "ABC" song--> fascism :O)

3/8/2005

2005-03-21T21:44:00.000-08:00

Today we began with a discussion of the ESSENTIAL elements that should be included in our epic odes of our classmates.

1) There must be a central subject. This subject will be a member of this class. Your "soulmate".
2) The following elements should be present in the composition of the poem: repetition, epithets (blue-eyed, fleet footed, wily) rhythm, invocation to the Muse, major achievement, hyperbole, metrics and meter.

Consider adding the following: hardships on the road to achievement, birth place, family.

Next we had a discussion of our impressions of Salman Rushdie's lecture and how it relates to our study of the Oral Tradition.
-he mentioned right off that the oral tradition is "alive and kicking in India"
-his presentation had a definite rhythm to it. He knew when to speed up and when to slow down for effect and in response to the audience.
-he discussed the tension between the oral tradition and the novel but we all think that in his novels he has done a great job of balancing the two.
-he discusses the novel as a vulgar form, it arises with the middle class. Novel accepts the language and speech of real people in real places and real situations.
-he believes that the stories are the important part. Religion boxes us in while stories free us up.
-"Cleanliness is next to fascism"...a little dirt and digression is wonderful.
-Rushdie's storyteller persona emerges greater than anything.
-he discussed the distance between fiction and reality.
-Root stories are the most important
-one cannot let anything get in the way of one's writing.
-he mentioned the power of the writer, the novelist, the artist and us. We all make a difference!

Rushdie rocks!

3/3/2005

2005-03-10T21:29:00.000-08:00

Today is Day 2 of meorization recitations. Again, everyone did a wonderful job!

Following our feats of memory, we had a discussion about our methods. Most people chose to do the Memory Palace and those who did tried to make memorable associations in their minds between the books and the loci within their imagined space.

In many respects, those of us who have the titles memorized and are listing to the recitations are listening to and oral story that we have heard before and are remembering and comparing to what we know.

Because we have all done so well inour memorizations, our next assignment will be to compose and memorize an 'epic' poem about a classmate. Yay...this should be fun, right?

3/1/2005

2005-03-07T21:17:00.000-08:00

It's March! Woohoo!

Today was our first day of Top 100 Memorizations in front of the class. Everyone did very well!

2/24/2005

2005-03-01T21:43:00.000-08:00

Today we went over the exams in class. For those of you who were not able to attend class, Dr. Sexson is counting the essays as extra credit to compensate for the difficulty of the exam. I hope that all did well!

Following the exam, Sexson tempted us with the mnemonic device

G
R
A
M
M
A
D

which he uses to remember th 7 liberal arts. We have to ask him about the corresponding words next time.

We discussed some of our answers to the essays also. Whose ejournals did we discuss on our exams?
*Several people mentioned Brian's journal, specifically his use of visual pictures to help out his text and his discussion of Baudelino as a grey area between the usually black and white issues of orality and literacy.
*Someone also used Wayne's journal and pondered his question about freedom. Who is more free, a literate person or an oral person? Sexson mentions a Wordsworth quotation "Nuns fret not their convent's narrow rooms" to further illustrate that space is not necessarily an indicator of reedom.

Why is Ong wrong?
*He says voice is the most powerful form of communication. Image, sign language, and text are powerful, too.
*DIdn't like the argument that the literate mind has more advantages than the oral.
*We disagree that reading a book is a dead experience.

Someone should write a book/paper on this...Dante's Divine Comedy (#14) as a memory theater.

Test Prep Class 2/17/2005

2005-02-21T20:33:00.000-08:00

Sorry folks. I was unable to take notes during this class period because I was writing on the chalkboard the whole time. Please visit Brian and Nikole's websites for the notes from today's test review session. :O) Good luck on teh exam!

Brian http://rememory.blogspot.com
Nikole http://www.geocities.com/nikoledidier/index2.html

2/15/2005

2005-02-21T01:19:00.000-08:00

Test on Tuesday the 22nd!!!! It will cover everything that we had said or done in class and the following readings: Yates Chapters 1-3, Ong chapters 1-3, and Kane Prologue and chapter 1. Read and review notes!!!

Remember, Salman Rushdie will be here on March 7th. If you have not gotten your tickets yet, DO SO IMMEDIATELY! They may already be gone.

ONG PASSAGES
*pg 15 "There is hardly an oral culture or a predominantly oral culture left in the world today that is not somehow aware of the vast complex of powers forever inaccessible without literacy, This awareness is agony for persons rooted in primary orality...We have to die to continue living." The stories of primal oral culturesencountering literate cultures are disappearing. There are hardly any preliterate societies which have not been exposed.

*****I just typed out all the rest of these notes and the internet connection was lost so I lost the notes....I will give the basic information.****

*pg 74 Discusses that we privlige speech over writing, or do we?

KANE
*pg 19-22 Discusses the shift from hunter-gatherer to agriculture as also a shift from state of harmony with Nature to an attempt to corral and subjugate it. Property, boundaries, fences.
pg 42-43 The story of the Caribou. Know it and how it relates to the oral culture's way of explaining phenomena and what it says about a literate culture's inability to understand some things.

Inventory your bedroom!!!!

Sorry this one lacks depth. :O(

2/10/2005

2005-02-21T00:45:00.000-08:00

ONG'S 9 "Canonical" Ideas (these are in Ong pg 36-57)
*1. Additive rather than subordinative: think lots of "ands" linking action. PARATACTIC!
*2. Aggregative rather than analytic: use of epithets and cliches to help memory along.
*3. Redundant or 'copious': Saying the same thing over and over in order that the audience "get" it. After all, we are unable to "look up" an oral story.
*4. Conservative or traditionalist: Keeping knowledge in a story but changing the story in order to reinforce the information. Storytelling as didactic.
*5. Close to the human life world: analysis is connected to what is close to their lives. Plants, trails, weather.
*6. Agonistically toned: Conflict between people. Contests, oral people always fighting. Engaging each other.
*7. Empathetic and participatory rather than objectively distanced: writing and reading as isolating while oral culture is communal.
*8. Homeostatic: Sluffing off memories/knowledge that is no longer relevant. Living in the present.
*9. Situational rather than abstract: thinking concretely and with pragmatism. "Hammer, saw, hatchet, log" case study from Ong.

Flyting
We heard quite the insults from each other today ranging from the "Yo Mama" one-liners, to sibling tiffs and calling each other "botanists". Hannah had one that began, I think, "Disconnected, brain-affected..." that's all I remember, but it was a good one. Think about what your Top 100 Insults would be...:O)

KANE
Strong emphasis on Nature. Its music, its stories, and its lessons.
*pg 45 "The terms for a definition of mythtelling involve a concept of ecological patterns which elude, or should elude, human manipulation, and are therefore coded as sacred." This passage gets at the fact that there should be things in the world that humans cannot understand or control. These things are not clear because they should not be clear.
*pg 40 "The whole world seems alive with relationships we cannot see...Often it is better that something remain a mystery." This passage is very much connected to the one from page 45. Shown, Done, Spoken.
*pg 38 "To repel bees, you burn this leaf. To reduce fever, you place the inner bark of this tree on your forehead. You can fold this broad leaf into a drinking cup...losing an elder is like losing an entire library." There is practical information within the stories and conversations of the oral peoples. Connects to Ong's canonical idea #5 in that these people know things that they must know in their society and their environment.

Notes 2/8/2005

2005-02-16T22:01:00.000-08:00

Engage the issues of orality and literacy!
Oral--> chirographic--> typographic--> electronic: we are back into the world of images (secondary orality)

Religion associated with the Book

Group Presentations: We are to become the world's leading experts on our cahpter in Kane. Each chapter is prefaced with a text. Your group should do an oral performatnce/interpretation of that text. Dnce it, sing it, recite it...but incorporate it. You have two responsibilities in your presentation 1) Be instructive 2) Entertain us!!!!

Language itself is a technology. Both pages 78 in Ong and 38 in Yates discuss the idea that writing destroys memory. Writing ruins people.

Books are dictatorial and imperialistic because they do not offer a dialect. "Truth" can only be acheived from a question and answer session. Books do not offer this as an option.

Every technology is a mixed blessing. There is good and bad. The use of the mind as a storage place for memories and stories can save lives as illustrated by the survivors of the Holocuast and the success of Scherezade in Arabian Nights.

Another Passage from Ong
*pg 33 "An oral culture has no texts." The definition of text to Ong is very dfferent than the definition of text that say Derrida or Saussure would give. In Ong's view, a text is something written down. In an oral culture this cannot happen.

A sentence on pg 20 about "verbomotor" was also brought up to illustrate that language does not conform to confining definitions. Different languages have different words for the same objects. Some languages have words for concepts, states of being, and expressions that we have no equivilant to match.

Kane Passage
*pg 34 "Myths in tehir original form- it wasa form very much like improvised music- opened their tellers to the proper subject of myth." Within myth and oral traditions we get the music of ordinary conversation. Rap artists do a similar kind of musical magic.

The calss now demonstates well know jingles. "Kleen King, Kleen King..." "Working together! First National Pawn!" :O)

Think memorable thoughts!!!! What is a memorable thought compared to a thought that is not memorable?

Notes 2/3/2005

2005-02-15T20:57:00.000-08:00

Dr. Sexson recommends the "Memory Theater/Palace" for our memorization of the MSU Top 100. Construct the house that you grew up in, or live in now, and make associations between the contents of that space and each book in the bookmark. That which we remember best is that which is memorable. Make your visuals spectacular, grotesque, provocative, violent. Use your imaginations. The use of cabinets and drawers is somewhat helpful. Remember... "It's all in your drawers." Memorizations are due March 1st!!!

Why is geneaology interesting to some people? We generally don't like to read lists and lists of names, begat after begat. Why, then, do some people take such an interest in it? It is partially because the story of our families is OUR story. It is the story of where we came from.

The first appearance of writing was in bills and receipts, practical documents that were needed daily.

Nature is where myth comes from. Myth is the song that the Earth sings but that we cannot always hear.

Passages we liked in Ong
*pg. 14 Beth's Passage--> "Fortunately, literacy, though it consumes its own oral antecedents and, unless it is carefully monitored, even destroys their memory, is also infinitely adaptable. It can restore their memory, too. Literacy can be used to reconstruct for ourselves the pristine human consciousness which was not literate at all." Ong acknowledges that literacy is multifaceted. There are good sides and bad sides to it. Sometimes it can even restore something that a culture has lost.

*pg. 36 Wayne's Passage-->"Of course, all expression and all thought is to a degree formulaic in the sense that every word and every concept conveyed in a word is a kind of formula, a fixed way of processing the data of experience, determining the way experience and reflection are intellectually organized, and acting as a mnemonic device of sorts...in the sense in which the word 'sea' is not." Wayne made a connection between this passage and the 3rd Quartet of T.S. Eliot. Idea of returning to memory for meaning. We all have expereinces but miss the meaning initially, coming back to those expereinces through recollection allows us to find the meaning.

*pg. 43 Brian's Passage--> "An oral culture has nothing corresponding to how-to-do-it manuals for the trades...Trades were learned by apprenticeship..., which means from observation and practice with only minimal verbalized expression." In an oral culture, the education is hands on and practical. In this practice, there is a passing of knowledge from one generation to the next in the form of an exchange.

*pg. 75 Allison's Passage--> "As late as the European Renaissance, quite literate alchemists using labels for their vials and boxes tended to put on the labels not a written name, but iconographic signs, such as various signs of the zodiac and shopkeepers identified their shops not with lettered words but with iconographic symbols such as the ivy bush for a tavern, the barber's pole, the pawnbroker's three spheres." image precedes the word. Quite a lot has changed now though. Images seem quaint to us now.

Pictures can bring on iconoclasm in their power. Idolatry can come from it. A picture cannot do justice to God because God is beyond what is imaginable.

Umberto Eco essay Macs vs. PCs. Macs are Catholic computers, PCs are for Protestants.

Secondary Orality: The reintroduction to oral culture after immersion in the literate culture.

Notes 2/1/2005

2005-02-15T20:26:00.000-08:00

There wasn't really a focused discussion of our textbooks today. Instead, we had a multimedia presentation with the goal of helping us in our Top 100 memorization. Dr. Sexson showed pictures of the books' covers and told interesting tidbits or read a good quotations from each book.

Harold Bloom, in his book The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages, argues that the books within the canon act as a guide to memory. It makes sense then that we are memorizing the "canon" of 100 books set forth by our Department as valuable.

To Re-member is something torn apart and put back together again.

After our multi-media presentation, Justin amazed us all with his memorization of the Top 100 books. His strategy? Put them in a story. I think it began with Lady Macbeth picking up the Bible, Moses parting the Red Sea and Don Quixote riding through. Really interesting, and quite impressive.

Notes 1/27/2005

2005-02-12T12:26:00.000-08:00

The world wide web is much like a true web. There are links to other sites all over the place and it becomes a kind of "create your own adventure story" when you chose links. If you keep clicking on the links you find intereseting, you will likely end up in a very different place than you began. Finnegans Wake is written like hypertext.

Ong is a scholar of Communication technology.

The great secret of mnemonics is SIGHT. Example of a museum as the place where we have placed images of past things which will help us remember what has come before. The Muses hang out there. (See 1/18/2005 notes for Muses)

Bookcrossing--> go to the mall and leave your favorite book somewhere with a note that says "I have not lost this book, I am pssing it along to you. Go to www.bookcrossing.com so that I can keep track of who and where this book ends up." I registered! You should, too. Go to the above site. It's easy. According to the site, there are 139 books "in the wild" in Montana right now...only 3 in Bozeman.

Visit a truck stop and listen to the talk there about the weather, etc. You will hear cliches and formulas which are very oral in their pragmatism and reference to the "human life world".

Umberto Eco "MacIntosh vs PC" Because of its reliance on images, iconography, and ritual, Catholicism is closely tied to the Mac. while Protestantism due to its rejection of those ideas is closer to the PC. Brian and Sophie's website have a link to the essay. check them out.

"Anamnesis"- recollection. Comes from Plato's denunciation of writing as technology.

*Journal Entry- What are our writing culture presuppositions?*

Notes 1/25/2005

2005-02-12T11:55:00.000-08:00

Important Dates
*February 22- Quiz #1
*March 1- Top 100 Memorization Due
*March 7- Salman Rushdie's speech 7:30 SUB ballrooms (get tickets now!)
*March 31- Quiz #2
*April 11 & 15- Group Presentations of Kane material
*April 21, 26, & 28- Individual term paper presentations and papers due
*May 1-Day for EJournal to be completed
*May3 12:00-1:50- Final Exam
See syllabus for more specifics. :O)

Kane supports the purity of the oral culture. Ong has a more balanced view of both orality and literacy and points out the advantages and disadvantages in both. However, while Kane leans toward orality, Ong leans toward literacy.

W.H. Auden "How do I know what I think until I see what I say?" Without writing, abstract thought and the shared technology and consciousness would not exist because the act of writing imposes structure and order on an incoherent jumble of what goes on in our heads.

Orality to literacy is an evolutionary necessity. Development of all disciplines needs writing. We take writing and reading for granted.

In a culture in which literature abounds, the rule of the law is written. The signature is all powerful while the spoken word is disregarded.

Marshal McCluin argues that "the medium is the message", meaning, that the way that one gets information will determine the meaning of the message. If I read Ong's text I will take a different meaning from it than if Ong were to read it to me or if I were to watch it on television.

An "apothogm" is a wise saying.

Wallace Stevens "A change of style is a change of subject."

Freidrich Schuller "The only thing worth having is accidents. Only in mistakes is there truth."

Ong argues that language itself is a technology. That it evolves and every step is inevitable and to be celebrated.

Memory of the soul--> Plato says that we all suffer from amnesia and we have forgotten that which we knew before we were born. We are not really "learning" in school, we are remembering that which we have forgotten and as we remember more and more, our wings from our angel days begin to come back.

Notes 1/20/2005

2005-02-12T11:36:00.000-08:00

For our memory purposes, things that are most memorable are repellant and repugnant.

This semester we will discuss MEMORY, MYTH, ORALITY AND LITERACY.

ORALITY AND LITERACY
*Google the "orality and literacy debate" see what you find and respond to that information.
*Understand the Ong text and then challenge it. Find places where you think his argument fails to convince you. Use your Googled info to help you there.

MYTH
*Sean Kane- we need to hold him suspect because he so strongly believes in the superiority of orality yet is writing a book and is obviously a very literate guy. Is he too sentimental about oral culture?
*Literacy as contamination
*Wisdom of the Mythtellers is out myth text. Each group will have one chapter in it to explain to the class.
*Write a journal entry about childhood/pre-litarcy as an oral culture.

MEMORY
*We will attempt feats of memoy throughout the semester intended to impress your friends and confound your enemies. :O)

GROUPS AND TOPICS

Group 1- Maps chapter
Group 2- Boundary chapter
Group 3- Dream chapter
Group 4- Complementarity chapter
Group 5- Tradtion chapter
Group 6- Context chapter

Notes 1/18/2005

2005-02-12T09:32:00.000-08:00

Oral v. Literate v. Illiterate
*Illiterate people operate within the same constructs as literate people, they just cannot read. Illiterate people do not exist in a primary oral culture.

*Literate people can read and they use
-chirographic: written (cave painting, Egyptian)
-typographic: print (deveolped 15th century)

*Oral people live within a speaking culture but have their own differences in
-dialect: the regional differences in speech

In a literate culture, what is the use of a written product?
*information
*history
*religious/moral
*communications
*propoganda
*writing as art
*entertainment
*instruction

In a literate culture, what is the use/form of an oral text?
*fable: generally has a moral, explanations for why things are the way they are. This is
also called an etiology.

*Riddles: turn the meaning upside down in order to cement the meaning in one's mind, it borders on spiritual essence. Examples seen in The Hobbit in Bilbo and Gollum's riddle flyting.

*Charms/Spells/Prayers: Magic, the essence of a spell is to have power over a thing through words.

*Story: the history of a people or culture, a sense of who we are.

The story in a literate culture is create by a solitary and silent author. The oral story is the product of a community. But, how ar these stories remembered orally?

How do we remember?
*repeating information
*elements of repetition (epithet)
*rhythm
*rhymes

Who is Memory?
*Memory's name in Greek mythology is Mnemosyne, the name from which we get mnemonic. She has 9 daughters who are the Muses. Know these names for Extra Credit on Quiz #1!

1. Calliope
2. Clio
3. Eratio
4. Enterpe
5. Melpomene
6. Polyhymnia
7. Terpsichore
8. Thalia
9. Urania

http://www.djo.ca/cbbMuses.html This website give a little description of each Muse's function.

Theories about the production of the Iliad
1. Homer was a genius who honed the story that was memorized by
subsequent poets.
2. The poem was constructed by a group (community) over a period
of many years.

Milman Parry favored the theory of oral production. Within oral training of bards/poets/scop, there are certain things to be learned that are later used in the construction of the poetry.
1. Complexes
2. Themes
3. Formulas - cliches, epithets. metrical word phrases used over and over to
keep the meter correct.

The oral storyteller composes within a community. These are the NINE THINGS YOU MUCST KNOW FOR THE QUIZ!!! Also see pages 36-57 in Ong.
*If the audience is different, the story should be different, too.
*Participatory interaction (the audience has a relationship with the teller)
*Repitition is built into the structure of the story
*Homeostatic: Pieces of the story that are no longer relevant get omitted over
time.
*Close tothe human life world: not terribly abstract themes or plots.
*Oral constructions additive not subordinative. Meaning that there is a strong
use of parataxis (the word "and" to link together events).
*Aggregative
*Conservative in information: there is a preservation of knowledge in the story.
The information is not original, the originality comes in the TELLING.
*Agonistic: tends to focus on conflict of interaction between human beings. Can be seen in "flyting".

Also, remember... Dog, Grapefruit, bottle of wine, toothpaste (crest), left shoe, eyebrow.

And Kori asks "Why are people in oral traditions liars?"

A new Blog!

2005-02-10T21:44:00.000-08:00

Hello fellow Oral Traditions students. I decided that I would start posting my notes online. Since I have not been doing it since the beginning, please be patient with me as try to fill it all in. Thanks so much and remember to take your own notes, too! I can't guarantee that I have it all written down. :O)