Second Set of Orality Masters

For the Eyes of the Shaman....

If by some chance you get to read this by tomorrow, Master Shaman, it is imperitive that another CD 1 be burned for all the pictures that are not up so far on my blog. I have tried reading the disc you originally gave me (in 4 different computers) but the disc is showing that it has nothing on it. I will continue to try, but it looks as though we'll need another. Sorry once again for the delay in this whole process and if there's any way to make it up to ya I'll do my best. Thank you, Chris

First Set of Orality Masters

For those who don't know what a Luddite is: a member of any of various bands of workers in England (1811–16) organized to destroy manufacturing machinery, under the belief that its use diminished employment

Deserved Explanations

I must apologize to the class for having its scribe be pulled from them during such a crutial time. I've dealt with some emotional pain over the last few weeks that has been pretty hard on me and my family, but everything is starting to seem like it's finally starting to come to a partially satisfactory resolution. I am back in Bozeman and all is now fine with me. You'll be seeing me and my little computer once again in class tomorrow and everything will pick back up right where I left off. I have read all of your blogs and seen that, for the most part, the recitals of memory went quite well. I'm very glad to hear that. Right at this moment I will be putting up the first set of pictures of you all on here and will get the rest of them up ASAP. Hope you enjoy browsing them, memorizing them, and I'll see you tomorrow. -Chris

Doodling in Class May Help Memory

FRIDAY, Feb. 27 (HealthDay News) -- You might look like you're not paying attention when you doodle, but science says otherwise.

Researchers in the United Kingdom found that test subjects who doodled while listening to a recorded message had a 29 percent better recall of the message's details than those who didn't doodle. The findings were published in Applied Cognitive Psychology.

"If someone is doing a boring task, like listening to a dull telephone conversation, they may start to daydream," study researcher Professor Jackie Andrade, of the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, said in a news release issued by the journal's publisher. "Daydreaming distracts them from the task, resulting in poorer performance. A simple task, like doodling, may be sufficient to stop daydreaming without affecting performance on the main task."

For the experiment, a two-and-a-half minute listing of several people's names and places was played for test subjects, who were charged with writing down only the names of the people said to be attending a party. During the recording, half the participants were asked to simultaneously shade in shapes on a piece of paper without attention to neatness. Participants were not told they were taking part in a memory test.

When the recording ended, all were asked for the eight names of those attending the party as well as eight place names mentioned in the audio. Those asked to doodle wrote down, on average, 7.5 names and places, while those who didn't doodle listed only 5.8.

"In psychology, tests of memory or attention will often use a second task to selectively block a particular mental process," Andrade said. "If that process is important for the main cognitive task, then performance will be impaired. My research shows that beneficial effects of secondary tasks, such as doodling, on concentration may offset the effects of selective blockade."

In everyday life, Andrade said, doodling "may be something we do because it helps to keep us on track with a boring task, rather than being an unnecessary distraction that we should try to resist doing."

Intro to Oral Cultures

It is a fascinating video, a little slow and partly made for missionary education, but I find the most interesting part of the video is to be found at the very end when you get to see the young boy, maybe early teens, telling what you can make out to be a very exciting and obviously gripping story (by the number of people watching him). Even though we can not understand his language, we can understand the emotions and the tensions just by listening and watching him speak. This is something you absolutely can not do with a piece of literature in a foreign language if you do not understand the language. Hence, we have another downside to literacy. Please, though, feel free to skip around in the video, just make sure to watch the last minute. (Suprisingly, I could not find a single thing on the second part of this video. If anyone else runs by it let me know.)

A Different Type of Epithet

Hash for March 02, 2009

- ***You will write down your 50 memorized item, your epithets, a paper idea for the final paper, and your group names on Wednesday the 4th. ***

- We will be hearing of Ramon Lull from Sutter, then joining into our groups for conversation time.

- Ramon Lull created his memory system as a conversion/persuasion system from non-gentile religions to the gentiles.

- Read some from 176 in Yates. Corporeal Similitudes stick out in our imagination (like Quasimoto).

- Lull believes the nine aspects of God can be assigned to anything. Lull's memory is not stagnant.

- Alethiometer - "Truth meter" - Leth means forget, aleth means unforget.

- BCDEFGHIK - The nine attributes of God.

- Bonitas is what Yates uses on 179 for goodness.

- 184 starts on why corporeal similitudes will not work.

- Yates only uses repetition (From artificial memory) to actually memorize something.

- Yates's images in the book do not flow along with Lull's ideas.

- Lull uses frequent meditation. Lull and Bruno were magical, and that's why these people have been viewed as heretical and were killed because of their power and theri ability to bestow it upon others.

Most important thing to note on Lull - Got rid of Corporeal Similitude and was huge on movement in memory.


Epithets ( Brandon's Epitaphs) -

1. Briane Barber - Summer Breeze
2. Bowles, Kari - Charismatic Kari of the Curly Hair
3. Clark, Chris - Chris Scribbles the Scribe
4. Connell, Parker of the Outback
5. Crawford, Steve - Steven of the Rivers
6. Currie, Jana - Animal Tamer
7. Ebert, Rich - Big Rich
8. Joan Goss - Gossamer VonGoss
9. Tai Kersten - Tautological Tai
10. Kienitz, Kyle - of the skinny jeans
11. Kayla Kitchens - Snake-Haired Kayla
12. James Kushman - "The Rat"
13. Helena Lafave - 10,000 takes
14. Larscheid, Brian - The Eldest
15. Kevin Luby - Bright-Eyes
16. Parker Mann
17. Christine McCann - of the laughing rats
18. Shannon McLaughlin - Wise Wandering Shannon
19. Meznerich William - Willy Quiet Willy
20. Deep Sea-Fishing Jeff (Shutt)
21. John Nay of the Striped Hat
22. Kelsey Stavnes of the Free Rent
23. Brandon Spevacek - Bearded Brandon
24. Carly Parelius - Crazy Coffee Carly
25. Melissa Newman - Sweet Smiling Melissa
26. Stremmel, Sutter - The Sacker of Cities
27. Zach Morris - Zach of the Saving Bells
28. Zach Smith - Za Zen Zach
29. Jared Zygarlicke - of the open Plain
30. Kate Beaudoin - Kate of the Beautiful Eyes

- These memory systems take us to a place that is not a place.

"You've got to like what you're doing." -MS says this of our paper presentation.

Hash for February 27, 2009

- We will be going through the our groups and giving epithets today.

- ***Google pictures of story tellers and oral tradition people and blog on them***

- Next week we will hear from Sutter on the Yates book.

- Talked of the stations of the cross and the ceremonies involved within the Catholic church for an oral tradition.

- Freud said, " Give me a person until the age of six, and then you can have them."

- Talked of the "Catch 22" satirizing and humor and what it has to do with the things we make fun of (such as literature) in the class.

- Talked of people who believe things "because they're in word....written in stone....signed in blood"
- The protestants in the family who believe this.
- The lawyers whos only matter is if you signed a document or not.

- Because Sexson forgot something, Sutter introduces us to Ramone today.

- Ramon Lull, (google Lullism) pg. 173, he introduces movement into memory, it is the most important aspect of his memory system... the memory systems we've seen so far are single images on shelf, his move around.
- The circle with 9 letters within it on board... B C D E F G H I K. The virtues of God are within circle. The Bohemian Ideals

- Can you return a book to the oral culture? Finnegans Wake came the closest.

- The class is reading from Finnegans Wake. The book does not end... it ends in the middle of a sentence. Stops with circular totalitary type thinking.

- Finnegan's Wake says something different every time you open it. It always means something different. Always.

- "The Ballad of Finnegan's Wake" is an old fable from Irish Lore of a man who falls off a ladder, has a wake, and gets up at it.... maybe, I need to find it online.

- My Group's Epithets: Crazy Coffee Carly, Bright Eyed Kevin, Big Rich, Totalogic Tai, Snake-Haired Kayla, Red Damsel Danielle Hawly, Summer Breeze, James "The Rat" Kushman, Chris Scribbles the Scribe

Hash for February 25, 2009

82.5 average on the test..... He said it was either: A - Too Easy, B - We're Too Smart, C - We're Learning Our Memory Techniques. (We decided mix of b and c)

Friday we'll talk about epithets within our groups.

Be prepared one week from Monday the 2nd of March to begin reciting 50 memorized things. The important thing there will be to talk of your technique.

Ong was a Jesuit Priest - doing his dissertation and Marshall McLuhan was his tutor (Northfrop Frye was around that school at the same time.)

- Ong was extremely organized.

"Lots of scripts but only one alphabet" pg. 88......Ong?

Sexson's "Re-Membering Finnegan" link, which on my blog isn't a link but a web address you need to copy and paste. Pain, I know.

pg. 100 Ong - "Writing is a solipsistic operation."

pg 92 Ong - Grammar comes from "magical lore" in Middle English. Glamour is also related.

First written documents were lists/inventories. (Not Lit Majors but Business)

Finnegan's Wake is a list and wonderful connection to the oral life world.
***Assignment was to figure out what you love hearing, writing, listening to***

Henry V part 1 - Falstaff's List - One of the most famous

Chris went over how having no vowels in Hebrew is like having personalized license plate. Readable but something's missing.

Here's the address to a Hebrew paper: http://jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/newspapers/halevanon/html/halevanon.pdf

Hebrew did eventually evolve to have vowels of sorts.

And we all recited the alphabet song because we're brainwashed in 2nd or 3rd grade to know this and be taken from our oral mindset!!!