Yesterday Mr. Sexson came to visit me in my memory theatre- the international coffee traders- the place where I decided to put my 50 characters from Ovid's Metamorpheses because, after four years of working there, I can say I know the nooks and crannies of the place as well as if it were my own house. Well, it was an incidence of synchronization when Mr. Sexson showed up, because I had Ong's "Orality and Literacy" sitting out on the counter intending to read it in the down time at work. i ended up talking about it instead, because the first customer who came in that morning spotted it and started interrogating me about the topic. This is a regular who is a writer stationed in Bozeman writing a book. He told me that if this topic interested me I should look for a book called "The Bicameral Mind" or something to that effect. I told him we just had that a question about the bicameral mind on our test (still, I was provoked to return to that section in Ong for a reread). That was only the first instance, throughout the morning, I'd say about 5 more customers commented on the book. Some asked what it was about, others had something to say on the topic. In any case, I was surprised at people's interest in this topic, and that our Oral Traditions class is not the only demographic that ponders issues concerning orality and literacy. Many people seem to be aware that we're making a shift right now into the digital age that is equivalent to the dawn of literacy and the printing press in human society.
Likewise, it was convenient that syncronicity that Mr. Sexson came by because all this success in memorization (which I testified to today in class) sparked a new question in me that only he could answer (because I don't know anybody else who can quote from such a wide range of classic literature): I see how the memory theatre works for namings off lists of names, spices, top 40 hits, etc. But what about for those long quotations from James Joyce or Nabokov that Sexson has been reciting word for word since my first class with him- American Lit 2- almost 3 years ago ("Lolita. Light of my life, fire of my loins..."). I wondered, is the memory theatre technique his esoteric method for this type of memorization as well. Sometimes these lines from literature plant themselves in our heads simply because they are so beautiful and... unforgettable. I haven't forgotten those few lines from Wallace Stevens "Sunday Morning" that moved me to tears, especially when I walk down feeling "gusty emotions on wet roads on autumn nights. All pleasures and all pains. Remembering the bough of summer and the winter branch. These are the measures destined for her soul". But in every class I've taken, he has always been able to repeat passages from the books we read without referring to the text. How does one do this?
I think of how I went about assigning names to objects in my memory theatre. Originally, my intention was to assign the name to something that would remind me of the story. But I only hold true to that in a few cases... for example putting Jason and Medea together because they share a story in ovid or Achilles and Agamemnon. But those were only vague associations... i know they appear in the story together, but i can't retell the story for you verbateum. It just didn't work out as I was moving along in my memory theatre. But see, I realize now that I could have done that. I could associate names with objects in the coffee shop that remind me of the stories, and use that as means of memorizing the stories of Ovid. So I can see how in this way, literature and stories can be memorized.
The customers who inquired about "Orality and Literacy" ended up getting a testimony similar to the one I gave in class today. I explained how it was a required text for the Oral Traditions course that I am taking right now, which is turning out to be the most fascinating and useful (read: practical) class that I've ever taken because I am discovering a mental capacity that I didn't even know I had, that I wouldn't have known that I have. That is I'm discovering my own capacity for memory, my own divine connection, a place where I find myself "trafficing with the gods".
-"Trafficing with the gods" on Mt Olympus-
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