Term Paper Presentations Part Duex

Well we are winding down, and I am a little stressed to find out that our ejournals were due today, so I am will be frantically trying to finish up my thoughts and get some of this stuff down. I know that I have at least 4 solid journal entries that I wish to write, so hopefully I will get them down, more rambling for you to read. The presentations started off today very well. Bryan J. refuted the idea presented by Ong regarding the importance of gesture. He had a lot of information and made some really interesting connections, asserting that sign lanuage accelerates language acquisition, and that it is hard to determine by the development of a child who is deaf and a hearing child. Courtney did something that I know I was interested in, and if you read my Finnegans Wake entry you will see that I have taken up the gaunlet thrown down by Dr. Sexson and will try and complete the works of Joyce, and especially the Wake. But enough about me, Courtney did a hypertext experiment with the Wake and it looks quite amazing. If you would like you can travel to her site by clicking on the Wake. The printout of her site that went through class looked amazing and although I have glanced at the site, I plan on trying to spend some real time with it tomorrow. Ed looked out memorization and how literate cultures and oral cultures differ on the idea of memory. ORal presenters may think that they are giving a verbatim account, but in actually they are not. We need to think of the idea of not only being able to memorize something but also being able to present the material well, that is where the oral culture surpasses the literate culture. That the body is ultimately tied to the presentation. Justin looked at Tolkien, and the ideas of literacy in the lord of the rings books. Asserting that Tolkien felt that writing was not a bad thing, that it keeps records, and that we may have somethings to learn from those who have gone before us. Mick gave a presentation on various thoughts and ideas he had regarding our study of oral traditions. Essentially writing down to see what he thought, expanding on that he didn't understand Ong, that he felt there were a lot of quote worthy material, but as awhole not meaningful to him. Yates he felt was dense, and he like Kane, and especially the presentation aspect of the class. Jeremiah gave us some entertainment, and it was amazing to listen to "Boy named Sue" by Johnny Cash and to see the oral aspects of it. It reminded me of the instruction that Dr. Sexson gave us to go out and listen to the common language. To me, it was the common folk, or the way the oral language is spoken reproduced in that song. Very Nice!! Dustin came in neurons a firing, and explained how Vico's theory on chaos is playing at, and that at some point humans are going to have to become Gods are create more Gods, that we are in chaos, and that any shumk because of Internet can seem enlightened. A very worthy presentation. Valerie was next and again she enlightened us on the relationship between the memory theater and tarot cards, linking this to the memorization and the astrology elements, showing how they are all tied together. The four main cards of the tarot being the 4 elements of memory. Shauna was next and her presentation was very interesting and one that I am hoping in which she will post her paper so that I can see more in depth what she was pointing out, although I think anyone who is familiar with our President, W, will understand her linking him to secondary orality, in fact I think Dr. Sexson may have alluded to it as well. She found 6 examples that Ong points to as being primarily oral conventions that W has been shown to use. Unfortunately I had to leave class a little early, and did not get to see the final few presentations. But it is amazing how each person took the information that we had been given throughout the semester and tweaked it into their own work, we got a vast diverse offering of ideas and thoughts and it was nice to get to hear each person orally speak about the work since this is oral traditions, again I was amazed by the brilliance of our class. WE ROCK!