Story Telling and Memory LO2573

Ron2785@eworld.com
Fri, 25 Aug 1995 12:43:37 -0700

Literary notes from all over: I read something recently that I thought
belonged on this list, although I'm not sure I know why.

To wit: Bruce Chatwin, in his book on the Australian aboriginals,
"Songlines," says the following: "To some, the Songlines were like the
Art of Memory in reverse. In Frances Yates's wonderful book, one learned
how classical orators, from Cicero and earlier, would construct memory
palaces; fastening sections of their speech on to imaginary architectural
features and then, after working their way round every architrave and
pillar, could memorise colossal lengths of speech. The features were
known as loci or 'places'. But in Australia the loci were not a mental
construction, but had existed for ever, as events of the Dreamtime."

Regardless of anything else, Chatwin's is a thrilling, mysterious book,
gorgeously written. But this passage resonated in some strange ways: I
like the idea of "memory palaces," I like the idea of other kinds of loci
having "existed for ever, as events of the Dreamtime." As always, there's
the danger of corrupting or at least trivializing some rather complex
ideas as one goes about trying to justify or, supposedly, enhance some
concepts (my own?) that are, arguably, pretty banal. Still, I'll take a
chance and try to figure out how, if at all, I can "make" something of
this in the context of conversation, learning, and innovation. (Even this
last sentence, as I write it, begins to verge on self-parody. Oh well...)

Cheers.

--
Ron Mallis
12 Chestnut Street
Boston, MA 02108
617-723-8362
ron2785@eworld.com