Wisdom of the Mythtellers

I, like Jennifer, have really enjoyed reading these first two sections of Kane's Wisdom. I like the style of his writing and that he is so tied to the environment and the myths that come from it. I have not yeat read my "Dreams" chapter but I am sure that it too will be most wonderful.

One of the most interesing parts of the chapter "Patterns" was his story of the Red-headed Sapsucker and how he ties that to a universal truth that everything repeats itself forever. I think that this section really illustrates the tie that this book makes to other kinds of literature that we are all accustomed to reading. We read the same stories over and over again. Sure there are different character names and different plot twists, but, in general, the stories we read an write are the same stories that the ancient peoples told to each other and that have been told and written since. I find it fascinating that human nature stays so constant through all the other changes in our world and I think that in a way, it's all just more patterns.

The Apothegms of W.H. Auden

How do I know what I think, until I see what I what I say?

That Auden, always thinking. I like this quotation and I think that, for me, it is quite true. I often have a bunch of mixed up notions in my head about this or that topic until I sit down to make an opinion for myself. In order to form that opinion, I write. That's why I think that I enjoy the EJournal activity so much. I rarely engage with the texts that I am reading in a really full extent unless I am writing a paper or preparing a presentation on it. EJournals give me the opportunity to write about every text, discussion, or idea that I find interesting and go with it to a full thought. Usually, I just read and call it good until class discussion. I really need to work on that because writing, even informal responses, to a book is a great way to get at the questions/insights that I have. So, in my case, writing gives me the clarity that I need to form an opinion or theory about a text. Auden is brilliant. I think that I shall hang this saying above my door when I'm a teacher...or maybe I'll go with Dr. Morgan's decorative sign "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here" from Dante's entrance to hell. :O) Just kiddin'.

By the way, I looked up the word "apothegems" as we had it spelled in class and found that it is actually "apothegms". I was disappointed by this because I liked having the word "Gem" within it. Sort of refers to the saying as a valuable, beautiful piece of wisdom. :O)

Ong's Interesting Insights

When asked to find a passage in the Ong book that surprised/intrigued me, I was drawn to the following portion of the text:

Without a text, how could a given hymn...be stabilized word for word, and over that many generations ?

As I read this, I thought of the little sing-song games that we all used to play when we were little. "Miss Mary Mack," the one about "Judy had a steam boat the steamboat had a bell...", all those little cheerleading ditties, "Cinderella dressed in yella, went upstairs to kiss her fella"...the list (of course) goes on. I'm fairly certain that these (seemingly) meaningless songs were never written down and studied in order that we all learn them. We memorized them through an oral community of kids and they have stuck with us. I think it's really interesting that although these words are not "cemented" in text, we will always correct each other if some one happens to make a mistake in his rendition of one of these songs. Unless a text is written down and acknowledged as the "right" version, I think that all interpretations are valid. Some would disagree but it seems that in orality there is a flexibility that is not present in literacy.

My Literate Presuppositions

Dr. Sexson asked us to think about things that we take for granted in out literate society... For sure I take for granted that I can pretty much find out whatever I have questions about. I can go to the Internet or an Encyclopedia, a dictionary, a book on the subject...If I can't find it, it probably has not been documented yet! I suppose that's something that I take for granted because even though all of that knowledge is at my fingertips, I often choose not to look for it. I don't know how a television works or how to put a computer together, or why volcanic eruptions happen but I could find out in a second if I wanted to. It's pretty sad that I don't take advantage of our technology and written information because I'm sure that in an oral culture things that are a part of everyday life (like TV and computers are to us) are always understood and explained. Certainly natural phenomena are given explanation, usually through story, but that's an explanation.

As (I think) Valerie was saying in class one day, we all take advantage of the fact that we have stories right in front of us for us to enjoy at anytime. Those stories, although our experiences of them might be different every time we come back to them, do not change in plot or character. The story is concrete and one that can be counted on every time. Therefore, we can take a reading quiz on Dickens's Tale of Two Cities because I KNOW and can argue that on page one it says "It was the best of times..." It gives a sense of certainty.

I think that one of the most striking differences between written and oral cultures is in the idea of a "contract." It is interesting that in our time, nothing except the signature is valid in a contract or agreement. The spoken promise or vow or oath is nothing in court or in most people's minds whereas it seems that in oral cultures (and certainly in children's lit) the oral promise is everything. Think about "Rapunzel", her dad and the witch next door never signed a contract, but she expected him to hand over the baby just the same. I find that shift really interesting and potentially problematic for a literate and an oral culture co-existing. I do my best not to promise what I can't deliver, but, as I'm sure happens to others of you, sometimes it doesn't happen. In our society though the promise has been devalued a bit for this very reason.

Related to this, I think that we are sometimes careless with our speech but careful with our writing because we have the two different ways to communicate. If orality was our only way to express ourselves we might be a little more careful with our speech.

WOW!

I have to say that I am totally impressed by the great journal entries that I have read thus far. I loved Jennifer T's discussion of Joseph Campbell and Kane and really wish that she had been a part of Children's Lit last semester! All of her experience with Campbell would have made her an expert. Shauna's story about annoying her mom with the work "Mom" is calssic! I can see how that word just feels good to say though. I'm excited to see where these journals go this semester!

Annoying???? Me??

So, I asked my mom about what word I annoyed her with as a child. Either she's a good liar or I was "never annyoing," as she told me. What can I say? I was an angel. I do know, however, that my first word was "Wow" and, because I know a few kids just now discovering language, I know that even cute little words can become irritating. My cousin Laurelin (those of you in the Tolkien class will recognize her name from The Silmarillion) LOVES the movie "Finding Nemo" and can say three words well, "NO!" "K" (as in Okay), and "Momo" (for Nemo). She said "No!!!!" all the time which was frustrating because genreally crying went along with that, and she answered everything with "K!" Often, a conversation went thus: me --"What are you doing Laurelin?" her--"Momo??? K???" As cute as that is, it got slightly old, especially after every adult in the family began to imitate her.

At work the other day there was an infant sitting in one of those Kangaroo pouches just babbling away for about 15 minutes. Know that I know the correct term for this...echolalia...and can understand that babies just love the sound and the feeling of sound I understand why they do it for so long and soo often. The aby was just content as he could have been making senseless (or IS it senseless????) noise. It was exciting to see echolalia at work.

Childhood as an Oral Culture

I think that in many ways being a child pre-writing and pre-reading is much like me sitting in an advanced calculus class. I would recognize sounds and some symbols as letters or numbers, but as far as communication or comprehension I'd be pretty lost. I don't remember what it was like to sit in front of an open book and not have a clue what was in front of me. I think that that is one of the most interesting points that Ong has brought up so far in his text. In true oral culture they have NO CONCEPT of the "word" in a visual field. Whenever I am asked to ponder a word's meaning, I immediately write the word down and look at it. Searching for ways to break it down and find its history. Oral cultures cannot do this. I have NO CONCEPT of what that is like.

I've been thinking, and I believe Ong discusses it too, that to be in a literate culture separates us from our environment in a way that an oral culture would never be separated. As a literate person, I can read about the climate of Montana without ever having to really experience it. When we are children we are in an oral culture insodfar as this idea of human + environment is concerned. As young kids we learn EVERYTHING through experience. What hot is like, what snow is, that all objects have sounds that define them. When I learn to say "water" I have no concept of the word. To me it was only the sound of the word and the water itself that were unified in my mind. I will have more to say on this later. I find Ong fascinating.

Our First Meeting

To begin, Kory/Kori/Corey/Cory (?? spelling is not necessary in primary oral cultures) Winslow did a spectacular job in her introduction to the course. I think it really helps that she has taken the class before and gave us the "most important information"...Dog, Grapefruit, Bottle of Wine, Toothpaste, Left Shoe, Eyebrow.

One of the things that Miss Winslow brought up in her talk that I thought was really interesting was in her distinction between the artist/storyteller in the typographic (and chirographic as well, but mostly typographic) culture versus the artist of the oral culture. In a primary oral society, the artist is never a solitary isolated genius unto himself. He is always a part of a line of other storytellers that have come before and taught him and those that will learn from him and carry on his knowledge and stories. This is a wholly different concept of the artist as we are used to thinking about it/him/her. We tend to imagine A Tale of Two Cities as a text written by Charles Dickens: one man who created a world where Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette exist as people in the midst of the French Revolution in his version of late 18th century France. This all takes imagination and the book is attributed to Dickens's imagination alone. The idea that I have in my head of an artist is a person sitting alone in the corner of a coffee shop with a laptop writing away, then going home alone to write some more. This is, I think, a pretty common stereotype even going back to the romantics sitting alone in a wood for inspiration. However, I think that it is interesting to ponder the degree to which any of these supposedly "solitary" artists are really solitary. All writers exist in a tradition much like the oral cultures. They use bits and pieces of other texts within their own, follow the stylistic elements of predecessors, and rely on the readers' knowledge of pre-established theories/themes/ideas in order to make their texts effective. I think that the idea of copyright, perhaps, rather than writing, has caused the idea of author to be come singular.

On the website http://www.copyrighthistory.com it is explained that the first copyright "law" in the world was in 1710 with the "Statute of Anne". If you are interested in reading it here it is...

Anno OctavoAnnæ Reginæ.
An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by Vest-ing the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors orPurchasers of such Copies, during the Times thereinmentioned.
Whereas Printers, Booksellers, and otherPersons, have of late frequently takenthe Liberty of Printing, Reprinting,and Publishing, or causing to be Print-ed, Reprinted, and Published Books,and other Writings, without the Con-sent of the Authors or Proprietors ofsuch Books and Writings, to theirvery great Detriment, and too oftento the Ruin of them and their Fami-lies: For Preventing therefore suchPractices for the future, and for theEncouragement of Learned Men to Compose and Write use-ful Books; May it please Your Majesty, that it may be En-acted, and be it Enacted by the Queens most Excellent Majesty,by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual andTemporal, and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled,and by the Authority of the same, That from and after theTenth Day of April, One thousand seven hundred and ten, theAuthor of any Book or Books already Printed, who hath notTransferred to any other the Copy or Copies of such Book orBooks, Share or Shares thereof, or the Bookseller or Book-sellers, Printer or Printers, or other Person or Persons, whohath or have Purchased or Acquired the Copy or Copies of anyBook or Books, in order to Print or Reprint the same, shallhave the sole Right and Liberty of Printing such Book andBooks for the Term of One and twenty Years, to Commencefrom the said Tenth Day of April, and no longer; and thatthe Author of any Book or Books already Composed and notPrinted and Published, or that shall hereafter be Composed, andhis Assignee, or Assigns, shall have the sole Liberty of Printingand Reprinting such Book and Books.

Anyhow, I guess that I'm just skeptical of the idea of artist as solitary even in "literate" society.
It seems that the open sharing of ideas and knowledge is actually hindered in some ways by the copyright laws which have restrictions even on how much of a text a teacher can teach without buying 30 copies of the book.

Just in case you missed it, here is the information on Mnemosyne and her daughters that I was previously oblivious to...
Mnemosyne was the mother of the Muses and her name means memory. Her nine daughters were named the following:
1. Calliope 5. Melpomene
2. Clio 6. Polyhymnia
3. Erato 7. Terpsidchore
4. Enterpe 8. Thalia
9. Urania
Good to know for future literary experiences, I'm sure.

I also thought that the information that we were given regarding the relationship between the storyteller and the audience was interesting. It makes sense that a bard would not tell a tale that was in anyway removed from the community in which he was performing. Ideas are, therefore, not terribly abstract and very relative to the people's lives. I learned a new word: Homeostatic which Kory/Kori/Cory/Corey described as the practice by which unuseful information gets left out. What's the use of irrelevant or obvious knowledge. I think what is most interesting though is that these storytellers were the possessors of all the cultural knowledge for a group of people. That's quite the job description. I'm not sure that I would want to take that on. Thankfully though, someone did. That's how we got to where we are, right?

ORAL TRADITIONS!!!

Welcome all to a new semester! I just wanted to get a first post up for the new class. I've started to read the Ong text but I'm only on page 2...I don't have much to comment on yet. I am, however, looking forward to our first class meeting despite the fact that our professor will be absent. This semester will only be as good as we make it...no pressure. :O) See you all in class.