Final Thoughts

As I wrote the title of this last entry I was reminded of Jerry Springer show, and how after an hour of debachery he would sum up his thoughts, although I only saw the show a couple of times (really I did not watch that show) it reminded me of the Simpson's episode where they go on Jerry Springer to confront the idea that Maggie was the baby of Khan's (the alien) and not Homer's and at the end Maggie kills Jerry Springer. It was a halloween episode, and was quite funny, but in all seriousiness this will be my last entry. There are many things that evoke fascination throughout this semester. The idea of how my entry starts out, that of secondary orality, the memory theathers, and especially Cabalaism. This lead me to think about some of the research that I had done on The Tempest and the idea that most people believe that Caliban's name is an anagram for Cannibal, yet some liken it to Cabala, and the idea that Caliban may be closer to divine knowledge or the true sense of God than Shakespeare can come to it through his books. Just another example of how the oral culture and the literate culture can coexist. This class has brought me to the realization that there is much that can be learned from our oral cultures, and that it is something to keep in the back of our literate minds. Because I am getting a minor in Native American Studies, I have long known the imporatance that oral stories had and the magical powers that was embodied in these utterances. The idea that the spoken word is alive while the written word is dead. I think that these realizations will help me to appreciate the oral and written cultures more, because although I love the oral culture, I don't plan on forgoing my written books yet. Although as Dr. Sexson has pointed out, books as we know them are becoming increasingly unneeded, and that in the future we may just have ebooks, or books that we push a button and the chapter appears. I know that I am purchasing an ipod so that I can download books and listen to them as I do housework, drive, go to the park, etc. So that our idea of literacy is changing, and maybe in the future we will have a class that looks at the lost art of the written text, who knows. I do believe in Faith that their is something intrinsically benefitual to hearing the spoken word, as she spoke about in listening to Noah's Ark. And many people have shown the benefits of listening to tapes as we sleep to internalize the message. Another Simpson's episode that brings this to mind is when Homer tries to get a weight loss tape to listen to as he sleeps, but the send him the vocabulary builder, and although he gains weight, he is much more ligquistically capable. So Dr. Sexson may have his Wake, but I have my simspons, a sort of secondary orality that I carry with me, I believe that through the Simpsons you can learn a lot about literature, art, and the debates society is having. It may seem like a quaint little sitcom, but has many layers and levels similar to hypertext. You just have to have the knowledge to unlock the mysteries, and I think that is what this class has taught me. You must have knowledge about the cultures and technologies that have come before you in order to more fully understand the technology that we experience everyday. I know that I appreciate writing more, yet feel that the oral culture still has a vibrant place in our society. I don't want to be one of those people who just uses natuaral things, such as the telephone, but explores all of the avenues, the memory theathers, the art of orality, and the practicality of writing and the Internet. So thank you for your great leadership Dr. Sexson, you are like Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society, you are my captain, o'captain! We must seize the day and expand our minds to all of the possiblities, and then we may be closer to finding the divine knowledge that some many of our ancestors have searched for. TIS ONLY IN THEIR DREAMS THAT MEN TRULY BE FREE,'TWAS ALWAYS THUS, AND ALWAYS THUS WILL BE. -KEATING.