The capacity to ask the right questions (semester Roundup)

Well, I have to say, I am very pleased with another of Dr. Sexson's stimulating classes. It seems a lot has changed on my end since i had American Lit II three and a half years ago and vowed to never take another class from Dr. S again.

Of all of the aspects of the entire semester, I have to say Frances Yates' book effected me the most.  I am quite convinced that "The Art of Memory" is one of the best books I have ever read. I have never really gotten into scholarly writing like in Memory but I believe that will be changing.  I will probably reread the book this summer to get a better grasp on the concepts outlined by Yates.  That is of course. After I finish Yates' other book Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition and maybe even a translation of the Corpus Hermeticum.

I wasn't kidding when I said the entire class finally made sense to me as I sat thinking about what I should present for my Individual presentation. I wish I could rewrite and revise my paper again with a little less painkiller influence. The connections between the three parts of class, Memory, Orality, and Myth are freakish. Bruno is the key that ties them together so completely and I just didn't quite realize it until 30 seconds before my presentation. To be quite honest, reading Bruno makes me want to drop everything and devote all of my time to discovering the Divine Mind. I am pretty convinced it exists. Though reaching Bruno's divine mind may be nearly impossible, with some properly devoted study it may be nearly attainable.  I can only imagine the possibilities with even 5% of the capability of the Divine Mind. 

Overall, I believe it important to note that we've discussed all natures of communication, from orality, to literacy, to hypertextuality and back again.  For me it is not a competition as to which is superior. The true interest is how we got to where we are and where is it going. The development of language comes at a price of loosing parts of the older method but that older method continues to exist on a more subtle level. 

Reading Rich's paper, I begin to think in our entire semester dealing with the shift from Orality-Literacy-Hypertextuality we forgot a step.  The crucial step that comes before Orality.  How did we get that far. I happen to like Rich's and Darwin's opinions on the subject matter. Orality began with communication with the earth and the natural rhythms of the earth. If we believe that this conversation started nearly 100,000 years ago, Its interesting to think what capability for knowledge these primeval people had. Especially since 100,000 years later a man named Bruno wrote that the Divine Mind originates in a conversation with the world. Either way, all knowledge seems to come from our ability to process and store conversation. The medium for the conversation is irrelevant.  This class is an excellent example. I had a great conversation with Frances Yates, I picked up a few tidbits from both Ong and Kane, and every now and then I understood lecture. But the knowledge I gained from theses conversations is almost limitless.  Like I said, even up to the moment I made my presentation the conversation continued to dump knowledge on me.  Its fascinating.  Knowledge comes from the process of the conversation. I know I'm going to sound like a broken record by saying this but the processing capability lies in the Memory and Imagination. Conversations get ordered in the Memory and Imagination then the Soul connects the dots.  The Dots can come from any compartment in the Memory and imagination and once connected presto the foundations of knowledge.  The common conception of the brain is an infinite lattice work of synapes and braincells.  Its the worlds most complex connect the dots puzzle. Though not an impossible one, unlocking this puzzle requires a powerful capacity to order the dots an and even more powerful capacity to converse with the world (people, nature, animals, universe) and ask the right questions.

Thanks for another great semester Dr. Sexson, I look forward to running across you again.