Hash for January 23, 2009

Six Groups (we'll have many group projects) and your group will be known by your chapter you have.

Passed around books: "Avatars of the Word" James J. O'Donnell : "The Alphabetization of the Popular Mind" Ivan Illich and Barry Sanders

Ben wrote on his blog about his simulacrum (plural simulacra)
An image or representation; as, a simulacrum of a New York studio apartment.
A faint trace or semblance; as, a simulacrum of hope.

It is a cabin in Alaska (he's from Juno) and he built a representation of his "Simulacrum" out of Lego's: Because of this important place for him, he felt compelled to revamp it so he could see it once again.

Knowing where MS was when JFK was shot is just as irrelevant as the emptying of the cooler. **Until we make it relevant**

All of our days should be 9/11's in our brains. They should all be remembered like that.

Yates says, "We remember these because of the grotesque."

If somebody asked you to think of your very earliest memory... it happened to Shannon.

*I also have been given this assignment in my writing class, I wrote on my earliest memory that I knew was a “true” memory, not made up from videos, pictures, and stories….it was the memory of the earthquake I was in. I think I will actually post this memory tonight. Wait for it, it will come.*

Shannon thought she remembered being stuck in her backyard as a two year old, but she has only made up this memory from stories and videos she saw.

**Assignment - Go to Ben's Blog and Look at his Lego Cabin. Think of your cabin. Think of your first memory you actually remember**

Sam (Sutter’s GF) got onto Sutter's Blog and wrote a blog as the "Renegade Blogger" on his site.

***Assignment is to go find someone like Sam to type something on your blog. Someone excited about memory, orality, and writing. She talks about Platos Faedras. ;) ***

February 20th is John's 21st Birthday.

February 20th - FIRST TEST (John's B-Day may be a test question)
April 8th - SECOND TEST

pg 79. of Ong's "Orality & Literacy" - People against computers are urged this way by Plato's Faedras. He said, "Writing is inhuman. Writing establishes outside the mind what should be inside the mind." Unnatural. (Same said of computers). Urge that writing destroys memory. Writing weakens the mind.

"We could never vote against Mom and Apple Pie." -MS when talking of our importance of books these days.

Plato, in order to make an attack on writing that will last the centuries, had to write it down. What do they call this? Ironic I believe. ;)

Ong is saying that just like any other muscle of the body, your brain becomes flabby and useless if not used.

Some recitings of "The Idea of Order at Key West" by Wallace Stevens. (Showing our memorization skills from last semester in Lit. Crit. Engl. 300)

Talked about the commercial "This is your brain....This is your brain on drugs." Said that an add maker must take this class to figure out what makes something memorable.

"Every time you open Walter Ong's book, he's saying the same thing he said before." MS when talking about the information always staying the same when written, but when spoken can be lengthened or shortened, ignorant and enlightened.

What does Ong talk about when he uses the word Voicing? In the beginning there was the word, and giving the word flesh is giving it a voice.

Think of the most quiet person you know: They are dead.

Ten minutes left in class......

****Assignment: ONG KANE YATES - Extract your 2 or 3 central things that strike you as important or memorable from these novels.****

****Make your "Ben's Cabin" in your head. Make your theatre, your castle, your palace... think through all the permanent things in this place and tell us of your place (first house you lived in is the best for this).****

Next time we meet we have to start by talking about the Synagogue Tai used to go to...