What struck me most about these readings was how much they loved Homer as an example. Homer was also the example used in Gened whenever they talked about early literature. While writing might have been around long before Homer's epic poems were first transcribed, they seem to be the first stories that had been.
While reading Ong I decided that Homer caused a great evolution in the way stories are taken down. Throughout the two chapters we read this week, they kept talking about how Homer's Iliad and Odyssey changed how poets did things. Instead of keeping everything as an oral tradition where people passed down the story, generation to generation, they now used writing to put down their poems, stories and other literature. They still used the same style as they did when they were oral stories, which is why it's a tough decision if this is remediation or evolution, but the fact that Homer's poems caused a paradigm shift.
So...this is a case of leaving us hanging! What shifted? Why? Is that remediation (and if so, what kind) or an evolutionary process? Things like that are good things to put in an answer.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Julie. What caused a paradigm shift? I am interested to know where you were going with that. Otherwise, I agree with your post. I do believe that Homer changed the way writing is recorded. There seems to be more of an importance on keeping records of writing now a days.
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