ENGLISH 338 - Oral Literature

i’m typing this from home cause i’m a bit weak today, but the argument of purpose in poetics and purpose in slam/ performance varied from one to the next and while i tried to emphasise the point that the moment, that singular note of time from the end of the poets entire peice, to the moment of recognition from the audience can make or break intent, while dan might write from the masterbatory point of pleasing himself (though he does please others as well) , some people are just there to spread the message of the poem, and while poems can be shitty and a ventilation process, they can just as often be an informative medium for the uncommon of people to fall into, nobody digs poetry anymore, not like the old days, their still afraid that poetry is like the old days and cringe at the word poet. slam poetry and performance poetry stives to take a new approach to the same creature of literature, utilizing emediacy (i’m an english minor fuck off me spelling grammer snipers). people need to feel and understand right now, or their moving on to the next reality tv show.

or is there another way we can make poetry a viable powerhouse in modern america?

with the past readings i’ve been thinking, are we a hybrid of an oral and a text culture?, sure we’ve been ‘hearing’ that we’re a literate culture and we’ve been educated to depend on the text, but in that’s on in terms of science, business, formalities, and part of our educational process, the other, (in my opinion the reason society can bear to exist) is still highly focused in the oral, the music, stories, conversation, improvisation, communication. we might have to read stories and write papers in class, but we often have to hear family stories from aging family orally, we hear music across the radio, etc. what is everyones take on this are we a hybrid, or have we essentially given ourselves to the text?, you don’t need to mention that in most things there is an underlying text, that’s obvious, but you could present mabey the benefits of both a purely oral culture and that of the written culture, and what we gain/loose by having a hybrid,

cheers