cabinets of curiosity

I googled "Cabinets of Curiosity" like Sexson suggested we do in class today, and I was surprised to find out that Cabinets actually meant "rooms", not like the cabinets that Sutter drew on the board today. But after reading the entry in Wikipedia, I had trouble seeing the connection between "Cabinets of Curiosity" and the memory techniques we were talking about in class today. The introduction alludes to them as a synonym for memory palace, but beyond that, the definition/description sounds makes the cabinets out as something of a natural museum, rather than a "memory theatre". Maybe we will discuss this further in class...

I also looked up the names and jobs of the nine muses and will be on my way to memorizing them using the methods that our classmates demonstrated on the board. I read that Mnemosyne- the mother of the 9 muses- was very important to them because before there were books, before literacy, poets had to carry their work in their memories. Today in my reading of Ong, I read some fascinating passages about the Homeric poets and the debate about how and who is responsible for these epic poems. His assertion is true that "fully literate persons can only with great difficulty imagine what a primary oral culture is like" (ong 31), myself being an example of that. It never dawned on me that a person who never had contact with literature or writing, like the homeric poets, would have a different mental capacity for memorization. Perhaps even to the extent that they could hold volumes of epic poetry in their minds (with the aid of mnemosyne, of course). I think the most shocking thing that I have read in the book so far was in the section on "oral memorization" that begins on page 57. An oral culture is an illiterate one, and "learning to read and write disables the oral poet" (p. 59) because he would begin to rely on text as the controlling device in memorization. In light of all this, I think, so we don't stand a chance then, as the offspring of a literate society, at performing these impressive feats of memory. Our minds are constructed differently.

My first day in oral traditions...

and i am looking forward to what is to come! I was particularly intrigued by the use of a synagogue to memorize the names of the nine muses? I'm looking forward to finding out how this is done...
Page 79 Orality and Literacy. Its fascinating to think that the same objections were cited originally about the printing press that we ponder in regard to the computer culture we live in today. I think we have to admit that the immediacy of technology undoubtedely "enfeebles the mind, relieving it of too much work" (ong p. 80). Reading Ong's words makes me consider this truth even more deeply and i wonder, how many wise men have been lost or never realized because they were never challenged to exercise their minds to question information beyond what some technological device could quickly and easily provide for them.
Yet Ong goes on to say in the same chapter that, while it is difficult for us to think of writing as a technology akin to printing and computers, it is actually the most drastic of all three, having "initiated what print and computers only continue" (p 82). But even after reading this whole chapter, and all of the differences Ong cites between orality and writing that puts them on completely different wavelengths, I still cannot equate writing with computers in my mind. While the process of writing I think demands high mental involvement from the writer, i think computers really do weaken our minds, demanding much less of us. I wonder how much our minds must be capable of that we aren't even aware of because we constantly default to technology to avoid overthinking: there's no need to memorize the times tables any more because every device we own - cell phones, ipods, computers- are all equipped with calculators that do it faster. To think that at one time people were objecting to the printing press and the publishing of books for fear that it would do just that- weaken our minds. And now we live in an age where people don't even have the patience to read. I just wonder if the human race is still capable of the memory feats our ancestors could perform, or if collectively our minds have deteriorated over the ages. I guess we will find that out in this class.