Having returned from Spring break, this session was devoted to the memory presentations of those who did not go the week before, both of them very impressive. Christine of the Laughing Rats who memorized the names of 50 Mishnaic(sp?)rabbis(which are really quite evocative names), and then had to do them again with the lights turned off, adding to the mystical encantatory nature of the recitation.

And Sutter the Sacker of Cities who memorized first and last lines of great books. Various classmembers were asked what books they recognized, and Sutter repeated the line from book in question again. It was impressive and surprisingly participatory, which of course is an apt adjective for the oral tradition.

Something else that these presentations brought out was the privelaging of the aural in 'oral' traditions. You frequently don't see something, you hear it instead, particularly with manifestations of the divine. In fact its quite possible that Yahweh, the Hebrew name of God in the Old Testiment, is the result of an onomatopeia(sp?) of the wind blowing. I find that very interesting.

Apparently the film Synecdoche New York relates very pertinately to this class.