oral traditions

[Schlobin at aol.com]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., Jen Faulkner <jfaulkne at e...> wrote:
> On Tue, 15 May 2001, Tandy, Heidi wrote:
> 
> > I am sure that there are people who know entire stories by heart -
 it's
> > really not so hard to do, especially if you don't have to get the 
exact
> > words in the same places every time - as long as you stick to the 
regular
> > script.
> 
> Exactly.  It's really not that hard to learn by heart things that 
you've
> heard aurally/orally, whether it be movies, plays, stories that were
> read to you, or things performed by a storyteller.  Conscious effort
> isn't usually required.  Even in such a text-based culture as our 
own,
> most of us actually know quite a few things from memory -- 
everything
> from commercial jingles to the Pledge of Allegiance (for those who
> attended American public schools).
> 
> Music or poetry in meter is even easier to memorize than prose; 
meter
> serves a mnemonic function, one that is well-exploited by 
traditional
> oral cultures, but not completely abandoned by ours.  Personally, I
> always found baffling the suggestion by a choral director I studied
> under in college that choir members should memorize the lyrics
> separately from the music; it seemed to me much, MUCH more 
difficult to
> do (I never could, and would, if called on, let the pieces 'sing
> through' in my head to produce the lyrics rather than trying to ever
> think of them separately...  Other than this one thing, though, she 
was
> a fabulous director, whom I learned an amazing amount from....).  
The
> additional structure of melody and rhythm, or of meter and/or rhyme 
(or
> allitteration, or what have you) in poetry, makes memorization much
> simpler.  I suspect that's true even for those whose main way of
> memorizing is visual rather than oral/aural.
> 
> I'm terrible at visual memorization.  I never remember details about
> things I've seen, I have trouble recognizing people I don't know 
well
> (and sometimes even people I do know well, if they alter their
> appearance enough), I can't memorize grammar paradigms without 
reciting
> them out loud...  But by heart I know lots of bits of poetry, all 
of the
> lines to a ton of children's movies, probably, if I were really to 
start
> counting, the words and music to thousands of songs or other pieces 
of
> music, all the lines to some other movies (Star Wars, Wayne's World,
> Princess Bride, most of Casablanca, most of MP's Holy Grail)...
> 
> But of course, HP, which I've only read to myself (silently) and 
never
> heard, unlike most others here, I can't give a single sentence from 
by
> memory.
> 
> --jen, HP-deficient. :)
> 
> * * * * * * 
> Jen's fics (and other cool stuff):
> http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~jfaulkne/
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> Yes, I *am* the Deictrix.


I know the lyrics to hundreds of songs...and many poems, etc. etc. 
etc. and CAN quote from HP extensively..

it was the 18th of april in 75
hardly a man is now alive
who remembers that famous day and year
if the british march by land or by sea
from the town tonight
hang a lantern aloft 
in the old church tower
as a signal light
one if by land and two if by sea
and I on the opposite shore will be
ready to rise and give the alarm
to every middlesex village and farm
for the country folk to be up and arm

he said good night and with muffled oar
silently rowed to the Charleston shore

I could go on......