What are the chances?

One in three, obviously!

In class Professor Sexson passed out three books: History as an Art of Memory by Patrick H. Hutton, Learn to Remember by Dominic O'Brian, and Theater of the World by Francis Yates (a girl, not a boy, as many people seem to think).

We have now ingraned Mel Gibson eating a pomegranate onto our brains. What were we supposed to remember in conjunction with that?...

We also know that Dr. Sexson will give blood on St. Patricks Day, which is the 17th of March, because he will give green blood. And like Chris, I hope it is no where near as disturbing as that article about the guy that really did have green blood!

We can remember the cooler becuase we have discussed it so much, and some of us have written about it in our blogs. We know the birthday of John Nay because it falls on the same day as our first test, which is Feb 20.

We have mapped out the classroom starting with the (1)thermostat to the (2)blackboard to the (3)projector screen to the (4)"QUIET" desk to the (5)overhead projector to the (6)brown table to the (7)bullitin board to the (8)snowman drawing to the (9)funny "F" symbol. That makes nine locations on which to place the nine muses.

Oh, yes, Melpomene, the muse of Tragedy! It would be a tragedy not to be able to visualize Mel Gibson eating a pomegranate!

My first memory

My first memory is of when my (well, really, my family's) dog died. Tramatic, yes, but what I remeber best about it is that my uncle laughed at me! That was even more distressing. I remeber that my uncle had just brought us home from babysitting my brother and me. Dad was home, and he came out to greet us, and that's when he told me that Rosey, my (well, really, our) black lab, had been hit by a car and killed. I started to cry, and I hugged my dad. Then my uncle laughed and said, "I knew those tears would start soon." I hated that! I couldn't believe that a wonderful dog was dead, and I'd never see her again, and here was somebody laughing at my pain!

Looking back, perhaps my uncle wasn't laughing at me, although that's how it felt at the time. I think it shows, with suprising clarity, the egocentric feelings of the young child. Obviously, Rosey had been the family's, more my mom's and dad's really, because they were the ones who cared for her. But even to this day, when I think of Rosey, I think of her as my dog.

The unreproducable nature of this class

Since this class is about orality, then how could anything that is done once in this class every be done the same way ever again? It can't, that's what makes this class so special.

A way to remember the muses is to make a letter map of their names. Professor Sexson told us about 2CET MUP, meaning the names begin with 2 C's, 2 E's, 2 T's, and an M, U, and P - Calliope, Clio, Erato, Eurterpe, Terpsichore, Thalia, Melpomene, Urnaia, and Polyhymnia.

Here is a Wikipedia article on the Cabinets of Curiosities: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_curiosities These were apparently collections of various items of curiosity to the people of Renaissance Europe, covering such topics as history, geography, art, and many more.

Sutter Stremmel has made his house into a memory system. He showed us on the black board how he has laid out the nine muses in differnt parts of his house to remember them.

Professor Sexson passed out three books during class: The Gallery of Memory by Lina Bolzoni, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci by Jonathan Spence, and The Alphabet Versus the Goddess by Leonard Shlain.

Tai Kersten also showed us his memory system. He used his synogog and placed stained glass windows around the room to represent the differnt muses.

Professor Sexon also told us about the 7 liberal arts in the Middle Ages. He used a letter map that spelled GGRAMAD: Geometry, Grammer, Retoric, Arithmatic, Astronomy, and Dialectic.

All of our days should be memorable

How does one go about thinking memorable thoughts? Perhaps we are all just so word drunk that we can't remember things anymore; now we have to write everything down to know it the next day. From the book Orality and Literacy, Professor Sexson defined these words for us:

• Chirography - Writing - the world of writing
• Typography - Typing - the world of typing
• Epistolary - Letters

Letter, telephones, e-mail...all these are technologies. The new technologies are disparaged by the current generation until they are internalized. What have we internalized in our generation?

• I think we have definitly internalized things like e-mail, telephones, internet, and printing. Other things that I think we accept without much thought are television, radio, newspapers, and magazines.

Luddism - a dislike of technology.
I think everyone knows a Luddite or two, who opposes new technologies, although they may embrace others that they have already internalized.

Secondary orality - This is where a person may themselves be illiterate, but they live in a society that has become completely literate.

Two books that Professor Sexson passed out in class were Avatars of the Word by James O'Donnell and ABC: The Alphabetizing of the Popular Mind by Ivan Illich and Barry Sanders. Professor Sexson said that these books were important liturature for orality.

A parting thought: All of our days should be memorable. We should remember each day as we rember the day which history forced upon us to remember.

Our task is to rebuild our own cabins in our minds. My cabin is my parents' home in Eastern Montana. It is the second house I grew up in. The first house I don't remember very well, as I was about 7 or 8 when we moved.

A word that is not spoken is no word at all. So, now you have to read this blog aloud, or it won't even exist!

Think Memorable Thoughts

"The only answer is: Think memerable thoughts," said Walter Ong (p. 34, about halfway down). so we will endenver to do so. The first thought is, when was the cooler by the window lasted emptied? Oh, wait is that really memorable?

So, let's instead listen to the word on the street. It, perhaps, may not be very memorable, but once I write it down it will no longer be ephemeral; it will have substance, even if it hasn't weight. The first thing heard: "I think it was supposed to be in Cheever." To which another person replied, "What was the abbreviation?" Their conversation is now written down, and will not be lost to the winds!

I spent the weekend fondeling all three of our orality books, plus some art books, and a few books for my Literacy Assessment & Instruction class. I love fondeling books. It's in my screen name, Bookworm. My favorite books to fondel are fantacy/fiction or science fiction books, although a good mystery story is always welcome, too.

And I also found an unfrequented church, while walking my dogs. It wasn't the church I dreamt about, though. I knew it was an unfrequented church because the doors were locked. Ah, well. The search continues...

And the last thing I see before falling asleep is the wrinkles in the covers over my head. I like to burrow before going to sleep.

So was any of that memorable? I'm not sure. Maybe finding the church, that was kind of fun, exploring the backroads to the south of Bozeman. Definitely fondeling the books was worth remembering. The eve dropped conversation was not so memorable. But the quote for Ong I hope to remember for while!

The muses

The names of the muses are Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania. Their mother is Mnemosyne. Of the muses, six (Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Terpsichore, and Thalia) are responsible for various types of poetry, while the other three (Melpomene, Polyhymnia, and Urnia) have other specific areas, mostly pertaining to entertainment. Calliope, who gives her name to the "steam piano", is the oldest of the siblings. She is the muse of eloquence and epic or heroic poetry. Clio is also the muse of historical and heroic poetry. Erato is the muse of lyric poetry. Euterpe is the muse for music and lyric poetry. Melpomene is the muse of tragedy. Polyhymnia is the muse of the sacred hymn, eloquence, and dance. Terpsichore is the muse of dancing, the dramatic chorus, and of lyric poetry. Thalia is the muse of comedy and pastoral poetry. Urania is the muse of astronomy and astrology.

First Day of Class

An interesting first day of class. The first clues to forming memory have been given. Two important ones are location and image. Also being able to connect the memory to something, such as Katie Badoin (sorry if I butchered that) of the Beautiful Eyes. We have been tasked with finding an unfrequented church and learning the names of the muses.

Finding the names of Mnemosyne's daughters shouldn't be too hard, what with the internet and everything. It will be the finding of an unfrequented church that might prove to be a problem. But I had a dream about it last night, so I'm going to go searching for the place this weekend. It's unfortunate that life gets in the way of these growth opportunities, so much so, that I have to put off searching for my dream place until the weekend. Isn't that sad?

So, for now, I'm off to Google to find the muses...