Quote of the Day

"History is a people's memory, and without a memory, man is demoted to the lower animals."

Malcolm X (1925 - 1965)

Quote of the Day

"Life is all memory, except for the present moment that goes by so quick you hardly catch it going."


Tennessee Williams (1914 - 1983)

The Spartans and Persians Remembered

Coming in March

Currently Reading....

Quote of the Day

"There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief."

Aeschylus (525 - 456 BC)

Memory and Monuments

Memory and Monuments: Commemorating and Confronting History on the U.S.-Mexico Border

This week, UTEP kicked off "Memory and Monuments: Commemorating and Confronting History on the U.S.-Mexico Border" (see hyperlink above), a series of presentations, exhibits and panel discussions on the significance of monuments in the history of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.

Muy interesante!

Memory and Artificial Intelligence

In "The Battle to Save Your Memory," Time magazine writer Jeffrey Walker poses the question as to how one should improve one's memory as one losses stamina, vision and the trim body after one hits the big "4-0" (Walker seems to be referring to men only since he talks about not being able to fit into his "slacks" anymore.) Walker explains his journey by describing his search for ways to improve his memory. One stop is at Amazon.com, where he found lots of books with tips on improving memory. Another was to join a club that encouraged to learn names by memory. His last remedy against loss of memory was to try Ginko and Vitamin E, which did not prove helpful to recovering his sudden loss of memory. Seems that Vitamin E only helps patients affected by Alzheimer's, but only on a partial basis. So, what does Walker conclude about how to improve your memory as one grows older? In short (and being sweet), Walker states that "improving memory requires little more than a bit of concentration and practice" (5). So then is memory all about being focused enough to allow concentration as a means to retain information and remember as much as we can? Seems so.

I find it very interesting that the majority of recent articles I read about memory are, for the most part, tragically ahistorical. Much of the discourse about memory never regards the way in which memory developed from the domain of rhetoric in classical antiquity. British historian Francis Yates seems to be the only one who specifically states that the art of memory originated with the three Latin texts: "Rhetoric Ad Herennium," Cicero's "De Oratore" and Quintilian's "Institutio Oratoria".

This week I have been thinking that the more I read about memory, the more I am distanced from the field of Rhetoric. I want to bring back the art of memory, as Yates has done, to Rhetoric. I want to know more about the way in which speeches were remembered and why they were remembered. All of it has to do with oral culture and then the shift to a literate culture. This week I am watching A.I.--which taps into issues of memory by talking about the relationship between humanity and technology (Orga vs. Mecha). My observation is that David (the protagonist) is a boy whose memory is shaped by observation. He observes the way in which his adopted--and human--mother regards her "real" son Martin. David yearns to be loved like a "real" boy in order to feel love from her. However, David is regarded as a machine whose only purpose is to fulfill the role of a son. However, his request to be loved back remains unreciprocated. In other words, if technology has emotion, then it will ask of humans for emotion. So, in sum, humans will not reciprocate love for technology because technology is not "born" but constructed. Therefore, the Mechas, by having an emotional deficiency must not possess memories. It is only when they are "put into motion" that the Mechas observe and record information. However, David is the exception because he was "born" from love and had the body of a machine.

More later when I finish watching the movie…

My Memory Collage

Here is a collage I designed for my Rhetoric and Technology course. In the collage, I'm remembering all of the people who have shaped my life. Enjoy!

Memory Articles of the Week

The articles that I am reading at the moment:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,997134,00.html

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,997177,00.html

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,997135,00.html

Quote of the Day

"One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory."


Rita Mae Brown (1944 - )

Sor Juana Remembers in "The Answer/La Respuesta"

The following is an excerpt from “The Poet’s Answer to the Most Illustrious Sor Filotea de la Cruz,” in which Sor Juana remembers her early desire for learning and the way in which she educated herself with her grandfather’s library. I find it fascinating that she uses this memory in order to articulate her point about being curious about knowledge at such a young age. What is also noteworthy is that Sor Juana states that people in Mexico City were amazed by the amount of information she could remember, thus making her a young prodigy, which coincides with the idea that, during Greek and Roman antiquity, people with an impeccable memory were held in high esteem, as noted in Plato’s "Phaedrus," specifically when Phaedrus tells Socrates that he, a "measly" person cannot possibly learn a speech from memory. Doing anything else would very much be easier to do for Phaedrus. I like the way in which Sor Juana distinguishes intelligence with having a flawless memory. It is as if she is referring to the art of memory being different from “natural" intelligence.
You would figure that mastering the art of memory would make you intelligent, right? In this case, memory refers to recalling and storing information while intelligence refers to the something innate which lies outside of book learning and absorbing facts and, in general, information. Intelligence is almost God-given here. But isn't memory also God-given? Hmm....you decide.

“I declare I was not yet three years old when my mother sent off one of my sisters, older than I, to learn to read in one of those girls’ schools that they call Amigas. Affection and mischief carried me after her; and when I saw that they were giving her lessons, I so caught fire with the desire to learn that, deceiving the teacher (or so I thought), I told her that my mother wanted her to teach me also. She did not believe this, for it was not to be believed; but to humor my whim she gave me lessons. I continued to go and she continued to teach me, though no longer in make-believe, for the experience undeceived her. I learned to read in such a short time that I already knew how by the time my mother heard of it. My teacher kept it from my mother to give delight with a thing all done and to receive a prize for a thing done well. And I had kept still, thinking I would be whipped for having done this without permission. The woman who taught me (may God keep her) is still loving, and she can vouch for what I say.

I remember that in those days, though I was as greedy for treats as children usually are at that age, I would abstain from eating cheese, because I heard tell that it made people stupid, and the desire to learn was stronger for me than the desire to eat—powerful as this is in children. Later, when I was six or seven years old and already knew how to read and write, along with all the other skills like embroidery and sewing that women learn, I heard that in Mexico City there were a University and Schools where they studied the sciences. As soon as I heard this I began to slay my poor mother with insistent and annoying pleas, begging to her dress me in men’s clothes and send me to the capital, to the home of some relatives she had there, so that I could enter the University and study. She refused, and was right in doing so; but I quenched my desire by reading a great variety of books that belonged to my grandfather, and neither punishments nor scolding could prevent me. And so when I did go to Mexico City, people marveled not so much at my intelligence as to my memory and the facts I knew at an age when it seemed I had scarcely had time to learn to speak” (pp. 49 & 51).

From “The Answer/La Respuesta” trans. Electa Arenal and Amanda Powell

Also, check out this great definition of "Memory" from Lara Kelland.

Enjoy!

http://chicagoschoolmediatheory.net/glossary2004/memory.htm

Katherine E. Gossett's "The Forgotten Canon: Memory in a Digital Age"

Check out Gossett's "THE FORGOTTEN CANON:
MEMORY IN A DIGITAL AGE"

http://www2.english.uiuc.edu/405-2000/Gossett/thesis.htm

Speaking on the Fly -- Memory from "Rhetorica"

Here is a definition of Memory from "Rhetorica":

http://www.rhetorica.net/textbook/index.htm

"Memory"

"To speak extemporaneously.

The ancient Greeks thought that reading a speech from a text was sign of a poor rhetor. And a poor rhetor was an ineffective politician. A citizen might hire a logographer to write a speech, but the citizen would then memorize it for delivery.

In addition, the systems of classical rhetoric were designed to be used on the fly. Several of the famous Sophists used to entertain crowds by expounding upon any given subject extemporaneously. The canon of memory helped them retain and marshal set bits of argument as well as whole discourses.

Modern rhetors no longer rely on the canon of memory. We have computers and Tele-Prompt-Rs to help us deliver effective addresses. The ability to sustain an effective extemporaneous speech has been largely lost except to those rare individuals who have a natural talent for speaking on the fly."

3 Stumbling Blocks To Fully Using Memory

The following is an interesting article about the three reasons, or "three stumbling blocks," that prevent most people from fully exercising their memory in order to memorize a massive amount of info. This article is, once again, making me think about the difference between memorizing and remembering, as well as the difference between artificial and natural memory. Check it out: http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Kasibhatla1.html






This week, I read Cheryl Glen's book "Unspoken," which makes the claim that silence is a rhetorical art which has rich and deep meaning with regard to human communication. Glen emphasizes that a significant rhetorical meaning should be placed on silence, which doesn't always connote passitivity nor submission. Instead, silence can have a variety of meanings such as resistance, meditation, emptiness, respect, loyalty and a devotion to thinking before speaking.

After reading the book, I closely observed how much memory plays an important role in much of what she examines with regard to silence as resistance. For instance, silence as resistance functions within the context of a rhetoric of "forgetting" when and where significant and critical information is said to be forgotten by a subject in order for him/her to keep silent. It's almost as if saying that without memory, the person cannot fully communicate within a given situation. Therefore, "forgetting" reinforces silence. I keep thinking that there is a complete communication breakdown when the essence of forgetting appears in a given situation.

Also, Glen's book was useful to me in terms of emphasizing how memories shape the narratives that counter this "grand master narrative" that allows a subaltern to unsilence herself/himself from a racist and colonial past, especially with regard to Native Americans.

So, given this observation, I could envision an article where I examine how Native American writers such as Leslie Marmon Silko, Simon Ortiz, Sherman Alexie, Linda Hogan, and Joy Harjo use memory to shape their narratives. This would be a wonderful addition to my dissertation proposal.

This weekend should be enjoyed watching "The Forgotten" with the ever-so talented Julianne Moore. Also, stay tuned for more of my discussion about Frances Yates and "The Art of Memory"

Quote of the Day

A liar must have a good memory.

Marcus Fabius Quintilian (c. 35 - 95)

Quote of the Day

"Memory, which is always susceptible to lapses and partiality, is necessary for its passion and emotional dimension -- it is the sole remedy for oblivion."
-- Jacques Le Goff

Quote of the Day

"Memory … is in a manner the twin sister of written speech [litteratura] and is completely similar [persimilis] to it, [though] in a dissimilar medium. For just as script consists of marks indicating letters and of the material on which those marks are imprinted, so the structure of memory, like a wax tablet, employs places [loci] and in these gathers together [collocat] images like letters."
-- Cicero


I borrowed this quote from John Louis Lucaites' syllabus for his course titled "Rhetoric, and Memory/History/Critique" (interesting how memory is categorized with critique).

I like the words "litterature," "collocat" and "persimilis"

Yummy words!

Another Interesting Memory Flick

Memento

Borrowed this from SuperXero8 at YouTube

Me Acuerdo de Ti, Juana

Siempre me acuerdo de ti,

Juana.

La fe se convirtio en una carcel,

Juana.

Ahora eres libre,

Juana.

Y libre en mi memoria,

Juana

Another Online Syllabus on Memoria

Check out Christopher Kelty's online syllabus to his course titled "Abracadabra: Language, Memory, Representation" at Rice:

http://smatter.rice.edu/375/index.html

The following is a key quote from Angela Mitchell's prospectus titled "Tracing Rhetorical Visions: Technologies of Memory and Delivery", which makes ingenious use of Sharon Crowley's scholarship on memory:

As Sharon Crowley notes in "Modern Rhetoric and Memory": "rhetorical investigation centers on ethics and politics" (43). Hence it is impossible to examine the place of the canons of memory and delivery in the rhetorical tradition without considering the ethical and political questions connected to that study, for as analyses of the status of the canons of memory and delivery from the 5th century illuminate, the variable positions of the canons reveal the intellectual, ethical and political foundations of any given society. For example, the diminution of memory and delivery since the 18th century reveals a complex matrix of forces that have worked to weaken the communal and ethical dimensions of language use. Kathleen Welch argues in "The Contemporary Reception of Classical Rhetoric: Appropriations of Ancient Discourse," that by diminishing rhetoric's range to 3 canons in the 20th century, what has been created "is not an adaptation, but a wholly new structure that denies the central issues of language and power" (99). The return of memory and delivery to forefront of the rhetorical paideia means a return to a more fully rhetorical consciousness, and in short it marks the return of rhetoric as a potent force in our educational system. If, then, a "classical" rhetorical mindset is one which embraces the precepts underlying the canons of memory and delivery (namely the way in which knowledge is produced in any given situation), the resurgence of memory and delivery in the late 20th and early 21st centuries also seems to be a return to earlier notions of education, experience, ownership and community. For example, Sharon Crowley notes that "rhetorical consciousness is fully consonant with memory arts, which were designed to facilitate copious accretion of knowledge . . . a rhetorical attitude towards composition emphasizes copiousness, abundance, plenitude and aggregation" (43). Electronic multimedia technologies such as hypertext and www also emphasize a "copious accretion of knowledge'' and provide writing spaces, to use Jay David Bolter's words, where memory and delivery can flourish. These new writing spaces (which are continuations of Plato's wax tablet and Freud's mystic writing pad) function to create places, whether stored in a computer's memory or delivered on a screen, where writers and readers come together to create knowledge. Significantly, then, the valuation of the canons of memory and delivery are linked to the valuation of rhetoric in any given society. As Mary Carruthers notes in The Book of Memory, the value of memory and delivery depends more on the role which rhetoric has in a culture than whether its texts are presented in oral or written forms (11).

The advent of electronic technologies are not only bringing memory and delivery back to the center of the rhetorical paideia, they are also reconfiguring the ethical implications of the rhetorical situation in the 21st century. Since delivery has always been intimately connected with ethos, the new media are not only bringing ethical concerns back to rhetorical study, but also changing the nature and scope of those concerns. As Sam Dragga notes, the "revival of delivery has given writers new rhetorical power. And with this new power to design information comes new obligations, specifically ethical obligations" (80). Consequently, new technologies not only reconfigure the techniques of rhetorical engagement, but also the reconfigure the ethical implications of that engagement. Indeed, in Marshall McLuhan's words', the medium is the message, with memory and delivery functioning as significant parts of any format, whether oral, written, photographed, or filmed, created in a culture which values a rhetorical mindset, a mindset that is notably one which stresses collaboration and community.

from:

http://virtual.park.uga.edu/~amitchel/ethics1.htm

Check out Dr. Mitchell's CV: http://www.english.uga.edu/~amitchel/index.htm

Andrea A. Lunsford's Course on Memoria

Check out Andrea A. Lunsford's syllabus for her course titled

"The (Re) Composition of Memory" at Stanford.

You are one of my heroes, Dr. Lunsford!

http://www.stanford.edu/~lunsfor1/memory.htm

Frances Yates on Wiki Wiki Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Yates

Mneumoteknique

In order to embark on this research journey, I want to begin with the seminal work on memory—Frances Yates’ "The Art of Memory," which was selected as one of Modern Library’s 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the Twentieth Century.

The book was published in 1966, followed by its second paperback printing in 1974 (the year I was born…what a coincidence, right?)

The first chapter of Yates’ book presents the three classical Latin texts about memory: Cicero’s "De oratore," the anonymous "Ad C. Herennium libri IV," and Quintilian's "Institutio oratoria".

At the beginning of her chapter, Yates describes how the art of memory was said to have been invented by the poet Simonides, who recited a poem of honor as a guest at a banquet hosted by Scopas, the nobleman of Thessaly. As a compensation, Scopas paid Simonides half of his fee because the other half was to be paid by Castor and Pollux, two other individuals praised in his tribute poem.

After reciting the poem, and meanwhile the banquet was being held, the poet was asked to see two young men outside the banquet. When outside, Simonides found there was no one outside. At that moment, the roof of the banquet caved in, which crushed all of the banquet's guests. When attempting to identify the bodies crushed by the roof, Simonides used his memory from the seating arrangement of all guests in order to identify all the bodies. From this incident, Simonides realized that "orderly arrangement" was "essential for good memory" (Yates 1-2).

Afterward, places (loci) and images (imagines) served as a “wax writing tablet and engraved letters” (Yates 2).

Being the first paragraph of her book about the art of memory, Yates could not have chosen a better tale about the invention of mnemotechnics that, without a doubt, proves memorable to readers. The tale is simple, yet utterly grotesque in that Simonides identifies crushe

d bodies based on the seating arrangement that he memorized based on loci and images. It is amazing how the tale itself is a product of mnemotechnics since it presents such a memorable tragedy from a simple situation. So, it is completely acceptable to deem this story a "gothic" one which I figure would appeal to audiences during the Middle Ages.

After re-telling the tale, Yates states:

"The first basic fact which the student of the history of the classical art of memory must remember is that the art belonged to rhetoric as a technique by which the orator

could improve his memory, which would enable him to deliver long speeches from memory with unfailing accuracy. And it was as a part of the art of rhetoric that the art of memory travelled [sic] down through the European tradition in which it was never forgotten, or not forgotten until comparatively modern times, that those infallible guides in all human activities, the ancients, had laid down rules and precepts for improving the memory" (2).

So, the "classical art of memory" is rooted in the rhetoric and ancient rhetoricians, most likely Greek rhetoricians, laid the foundations.

Afterward, Yates presents “the general principles of the mnemonic”:

"The first step was to imprint on the memory a series of loci or places. The commonest, though not the only, type of mnemonic place system used was the architectural type. The clearest description of the process is that given by Quintilian. In order to form a series of

places in memory, he says, a building is to be remembered, as spacious and varied a one as possible, the forecourt, the living room, bedrooms, and parlours, not omitting statues and other orna

ments with which the rooms are decorated. The images by which the speech is to be remembered --as an example of these Quintilian says one may use an anchor or a weapon--are then placed in imagination on the places which have been memorised [sic] in the building. This done, as soon as the memory of the facts requires to be revived, all these places are vitied in turn and the various deposits demanded of their custodians" (3)

So, in other words, the mnemonic involved architecture, space and a memorable object, such as a weapon. Simple enough to modern readers, right? She adds:

"We have to think of the ancient orator as moving in imagination through his memory building whilst he is making his speech, drawing from the memorised [sic] places the images he has placed on them. The method ensures that the points are remembered in the right order, since the order is fixed by the sequence of places in the building" (3).

Here, once again, we can think about the tale of Simonides and how a particular or

der which constituted the seating arrangement of the banquet shaped his memory.

Yates adds:

"Cicero emphasises [sic] that Simonides' invention of the art of memory rest, not only on his discovery of the importance of order for memory, but also on the discovery that the sense of sight is the strongest of all the senses" (4)

So then the art of memory privileges sight as the primary sense. Next, my fellow audience, Yates keeps us, her readers, wittingly and historically minded:

"We moderns who have no memories at all may…employ from time to time some private mnemotechnic not of vital importance to us in our lives and professions. But in the ancient world, devoid of printing, without paper for note-taking or on which to type lectures, the trained memory was of vital importance. And the ancient memories were trained by an art which reflected the art and architecture of the ancient world, which could depend on faculties of intense visual memorisation which we have lost" (4).

I find the initial part of this quote humorous but true with regard to the contemporary absence of memory, due large in part to the presence of a textual and technological culture which depends on paper and computers as sites where we imprint our memories instead of in our minds.

Afterward, Yates examines the art of memory as presented by Ad Herennium, which is the basis for my next blog, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, I hope you’ll join me in watching Keanu Reeves’ 1995 Sci-Fi flick “Johnny Mnemonic,” which you can probably rent at your local video store for a dollar or two. Enjoy, my fellow mnemoteknics!