I have to say that I liked this chapter a lot. I found it very empirical. I could easily relate many of the artificial memory strategies to my daily life. I could do this either because I found them really helpful or because I have used them myself before.
It especially made me think a lot about my daily struggle with memory. For example, I struggle to remember all the things that I have to complete in one day, or to make a phone call, or to bring my grocery list to the grocery store. Before I go to the store, I usually write a list. But, I always forget to bring the list with me. So, since I did not memorize the items I needed (because I wrote them) I always forget something. Crowley and Hawhee’s discussion of organizational memory on page 382 was extremely useful. Next time, I will definitely organize the items alphabetically, and then I will memorize the number of items. That way I can make sure I have all what I needed and it liberates me from the need to remember to bring the list! Another aspect in my life where these strategies can be helpful is with my migraines diary. I suffer from migraines, so I keep a diary of migraines. But every time I get a migraine it is hard for me to write down the details of it. Then, when I go to the diary, many times I have forgotten about it. Thus, I am going to try either organizational memory or the association with images and places.
I also found interesting the importance of repetition and cultural memory. I remember in elementary school, having to memorize the catholic prayers…. It was a requirement for Religion class. I remember struggling to memorize the credo the longest prayer of all. But I finally made it, and I think it was through repetition. Since I used to go to the mass every Sunday, I must have memorized it by repeating it every week. Now, it has been a long time since I don’t go to church, but when I go I still can pray most of prayers, even the longest ones, out of my memory.
This chapter also reminded me of a story that my great grandmother used to tell me. I never memorized it and I have been trying to find it for a very long time with no luck. I remember very well her telling me the story. I remember that I loved to hear it and I remember that it was extremely sad. She had memorized it…. Every time I would ask her to tell me the story she would start telling it without looking at any book. I do not even recall her saying “what was next?”, “hmm… let me think”. Nowadays I regret not having memorized it. Reading this chapter made me regret it even more… I could have used these strategies to memorize it…
When I got to the electronic memory system, I realized that my email is my electronic memory system. I send myself an email every week with my assignments for the week, I create to do lists that I email to myself as well, and gmail has a great tool call tasks. Plus, it also has a calendar tool. My email is my storage for my daily professional and student life. Moreover, it is also the memory of my personal life. It contains emails that I have sent to my closest friends telling them news about my life, or conflicts and difficult situations that I have had to face… It also contains emails where I discuss with my sister issues concerning our family. Since these days everyone has an email address, we could say that each one of us is telling the story of their own lives and storing it in the electronic memory called email account.
Though nowadays we have so many electronic memory tools and they have become intrinsic parts of our lives, I agree with the authors when they say that “it is more accurately to think of electronic memory as a supplement to, or expression of, human memory” (387). I think they are just tools that we use to support our own memory, just like the ones used by Simonides. I don’t think our use of memory will ever disappear. As I have learned in my philosophy class about memory and imagination, memory is at the core of our mental activity, and is fundamental for human experience. Being able to recall our previous experiences and emotions give depth to our daily life.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Memory
Sorry for the late posting, class. I couldn't find time to use the computer today.
I am struggling with the idea/definition of memory systems. I understand how some of the early discussion points about ancient systems of memory define the concept of a system of memory. Even the organizational memory seems logical. I just don’t feel comfortable with the Literate Memory Systems. How are books considered a form of memory? Sure, it’s systematic…but how is it related to memory? Perhaps I’m using the word too literally, but I just can’t buy it.
I find myself most interested in the relation between writing and memory. The authors say that writers must remember what arguments they have heard on a particular issue and they must consider the events of knowledge that might dominate their audiences’ memories. I immediately thought of song writing and the way the role that memory plays. Perhaps the following anecdote will serve to organize my discussion. My goal is to demonstrate the importance of cultural/memory places but also to show that their are some limitations to what we should expect from people. In high school I played in a band, and we were attempting to play a certain style of music that wasn’t very popular. The sound wasn’t commercial, and therefore it was difficult to know what other bands were doing. We were influenced by the bands we would see perform at small venues and would listen to their low-quality, self-produced demo tapes to get ideas. None of us had a “memory place” of this genre. One day I showed up to a practice with a new riff/song intro. As I played it, my friend Jimmy said “That’s the riff from a Joshua Fit For Battle song!” I had never heard JFFB. Jimmy knew about them because he had seen them perform somewhere in Delaware and had their demo. He quickly ran and got the JFFB demo and played it for me. Sure enough, it was EXACTLY the same. The strumming pattern and tempo were identical. Because the genre we were writing music for was so new, no one had a memory place to draw from and compare against. I guess the point of this is…in order to participate (in anything really), we have to know what’s been done. This leads me to authenticity. How closely are memory systems and authenticity linked? And how do these relate to the practice of “thinking on one’s feet”? Because thinking on your feet requires a person to draw information, opinions, experiences, and words from their memory, is there a requirement on authenticity? How can a speaker be certain that they aren’t repeating what someone else is saying or has said? I’m assuming this because an issue of kairos/memory tapping. Does thinking on one’s feet give the speaker more liberty to use, borrow, and adapt because it’s probably an unconscious decision? Or do speakers need to be held to the same standards as a writer?
The ancient memory systems were interesting. I can’t recall being exposed to memory systems as a kid/student, but it seems like it could be valuable. I did, however, find some of it to be a bit excessive. I’m thinking specifically of the “Patricia Smith” example. Is it reasonable to suggest that we consider the following terms just to memorize a name and profession: Chysippos, Pryilampes, Patrician, blacksmith, astron, nautes, and star sailor. On the other hand, I liked the idea of associating an argument to a place, like the example of a house that the book uses. I actually think I could use that as a strategy in my classroom. It’s a way to stay organized without have cue cards or notes. It’s not just effective, but it’s also logical.
Do you remember when...?
I really enjoyed this chapter, and found the section on artificial memory particularly interesting. I have heard that there are various “exercises” for the brain to help keep it functioning strongly, especially as it relates to the elderly, but I’ve never thought of the memory as being “trainable,” through practice. In school we teach students certain “tricks” to help remember content. Students use things such as mnemonic devices, categorization, and music as study strategies, which sounds much like what Simonides offers on page 378. I’m currently reading a book called, Nurture Shock which includes reference to a study which taught students the idea that the brain is a muscle, and that giving it a harder workout makes you smarter. That alone improved their math scores. (Bronson, 17.) This idea makes perfect sense, but I wonder how many teachers spend enough time really instilling this in the students. For something so simple, it seems worth trying!
I wish I had known more about these memory strategies when my tenth-grade U.S. History teacher required his students to memorize the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, word for word, as a written test. If one word was missed, the student received a failing grade. Perhaps he thought that memorizing those documents was the “harder workout” our tenth-grade brains needed, but regardless, it was a temporary “smartness,” as I’m sure that by the time I started eleventh grade, I couldn’t have completed the task.
This bring up another interesting point, which involves what we should spend time “compartmentalizing” or mapping into our memories, and what we should just let pass through. While it seems important to know what the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution represent, I’m not sure the word-for-word memorization warrants storage space. Additionally, I know that I personally have a terrible time with remembering names of people I meet, and an even more difficult time remembering where I know them from. I’m hoping that tonight’s discussion will help to solidify some new ideas to aide my aging brain, in addition to what Crowley and Hawhee have to offer.
Finally, I found the section about memory relating to sleep particularly interesting, as well. Again referencing Nurture Shock, an entire chapter is devoted to, “The Lost Hour.” This chapter states that, “The brain does synthesize some memories during the day, but they’re enhanced and concretized during the night – new inferences and associations are drawn, leading to insights the next day… This is why a good night’s sleep is so important for long-term learning of vocabulary words, times tables, historical dates, and all other factual minutiae.” (Bronson, 35.) Crowley and Hawhee text seems to expand this by stating that, “ The brain is thought to process newly acquired facts, figures and locations most efficiently in deep sleep. (390) While the Bronson research references sleep and memory in children, and C & H’s information focuses on adults, both solidify the connection and importance of sleep as is relates to memory.
I could continue writing, but I’ll save it for tonight’s discussion – there are so many interesting points in this chapter! I’m looking forward to elaborating and collaborating!
Inception of Memories
I would have to say out of all of the chapters, I found this one the most interesting; I had never thought about being able to train or organize one’s memories.
However, as I read through the chapter it began to make more and more sense about the necessity in ancient times, a world without the modern conveniences of computers, databases, and the internet, for memory honed to be an effective and essential component of rhetoric.
This is not to say that these modern advances have rendered the content of this chapter obsolete, but rather it impressed upon me that to be an effective rhetor, you must train your mind to best be able to retain information that you can then easily call up if needed. This most closely displays the notion of memory as “not only a system of recollection, [but rather] a system of invention” (376). Being able to train your mind and memory to remember significant commonplaces, arguments, or proofs can undoubtedly prepare you for any situation. After all for ancients, memories were key in preparing for and delivering their positions, “whenever the need arose to speak or write, they simply retrieved any relevant topics or commentary from their ordered places within memory, reorganized and expanded upon these, and added their own interpretations” (376).
This ability presented here, the ability to think on one’s feet, so to speak, is one that I see lacking in society today. People seem all too apt to take positions, but rarely can articulate the beliefs behind those position statements. This has been made ever apparent in the recent election season. Groups of people are vehemently against candidates or political parties, and often times present misunderstandings or simply misinformation regarding the polices that these factions present. Perhaps here is where the reliance of people on their emotional responses to people or events often trumps the logical analysis of the commonplaces behind a person or situation. It is easier to say that you just dislike something or someone for personal reasons, rather then the core issues presented.
But then are these emotional responses not part of our cultural memory, and thusly still as valuable? Even if we are not able to articulate the reason behind our emotional responses, the fact that, “memories are stocked with many things besides narratives of our experiences; we remember things we learn from [a variety of people and sources], just as well as we remember experiences. Certainly we rely on our memories of all these kinds of teachings whenever we compose” (380). So, here it leads me to believe even in those dreadful arguments or moments where the opposition is unable to provide credible support for their position for which they are so stubbornly convinced, there is still some basis of truth in that position, or at least an element that has so powerfully resonated in this person’s memory that they are adamantly convinced that it is the truth.
Another element that I gravitated to in this reading was the different artificial memory systems that were practiced in ancient times. My favorite one was advancing your memory by “mental construction, consisting of a series of images connected in an orderly fashion to a series of mental places” (378). This immediately reminded me of the recent hit movie, Inception. The idea of constructing memories out of familiar places in order to better retain this information really mimicked some of the plot details of this movie, and I enjoyed examining this information with that film in mind. I guess it helped to make the memory of this reading all the more apparent, thus proving the point of this section!
I will leave with another contemporary example of these memory systems: a FedEx commercial in which the second memory system is illustrated. See you all in class!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FzwuUgg584&feature=player_embedded
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
The Palace of Memory
Surprising as it may seem given my sports-centric nature, in my time away from the world academia, I read at least a fair amount. Not as much as I used to, given the rigors of graduate study, but still enough to consider myself a rather literate person. One of the books I greatly enjoyed from my junior year of high school on was Thomas Harris’ Hannibal. Having read both Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon, I was greatly intrigued at the idea of a tale centered on the enigmatic Hannibal Lecter. In Harris’ Hannibal, Lecter goes to great length to describe a concept that is also alluded to in Crowley & Hawhee’s chapter on memory. The concept both texts have in common is the idea of memories being linked to objects, signs and symbols.
Referred to as a “memory palace” in Hannibal, this idea is one Harris’ text explores in great detail. Harris goes to considerable length to explain that the memory palace was a system used by the ancient historians, namely during the Dark Ages when much history was lost to fire and general ignorance. These historians used the same method Quintillian described as “tappable” memory; they assigned bits of information to objects, items or people they could recognize for easy recall. This allowed them to store much knowledge of history within themselves to preserve it from the informational scourge that was the Dark Ages, storing it until it could be safely physically stored or passed on to the following generation.
In Harris’ text, Lecter not only had his own memory palace, but his served multiple purposes. In addition to having facts and memories keyed to different items throughout the rooms of the palace, Lecter also lived there, as much as one can live within an entirely psychological construct. He used it as an escape from his years on incarceration, a sanctuary from all of the awful things (and inevitable march of time) that happened while he resided in the violent ward of a psychiatric hospital.
I chose this over the other (and more directly-relatable) topics covered in ARCS’ chapter on memory because outside of Hannibal, I’ve never heard of this concept referenced before. The text refers to it as artificial memory, or memory that has been carefully trained to remember things (376). It also explains how Simonides was able to recall the exact places at the table of all the victims in order to identify the bodies following the banquet massacre described in Chapter 11’s introduction.
Of course, as the text describes, memory has less of a significance for us than it did for the ancients, given how technologically inclined we are as a society. In fact, many entertainment media we consume rely on the fact that our emphasis on memory has diminished over time. They count on you to overlook maybe that one character on a long-running series once had a short-lived storyline with another, for example. Or perhaps that a journalist’s ethos was severely damaged after mis-reporting a story, as illustrated in my Mitch Albom-Jason Whitlock example. Maybe it’s as simple as your friend or significant other being friendly with someone who treated them poorly in the past. In any event, memory is a trait that is becoming less and less important to us. This made the topic (especially the ancients usage of it) extremely interesting to me. Memory may be less important to us in this digital age, but we should not allow it to continue to atrophy.
You know what they say about history and memory, after all…
Referred to as a “memory palace” in Hannibal, this idea is one Harris’ text explores in great detail. Harris goes to considerable length to explain that the memory palace was a system used by the ancient historians, namely during the Dark Ages when much history was lost to fire and general ignorance. These historians used the same method Quintillian described as “tappable” memory; they assigned bits of information to objects, items or people they could recognize for easy recall. This allowed them to store much knowledge of history within themselves to preserve it from the informational scourge that was the Dark Ages, storing it until it could be safely physically stored or passed on to the following generation.
In Harris’ text, Lecter not only had his own memory palace, but his served multiple purposes. In addition to having facts and memories keyed to different items throughout the rooms of the palace, Lecter also lived there, as much as one can live within an entirely psychological construct. He used it as an escape from his years on incarceration, a sanctuary from all of the awful things (and inevitable march of time) that happened while he resided in the violent ward of a psychiatric hospital.
I chose this over the other (and more directly-relatable) topics covered in ARCS’ chapter on memory because outside of Hannibal, I’ve never heard of this concept referenced before. The text refers to it as artificial memory, or memory that has been carefully trained to remember things (376). It also explains how Simonides was able to recall the exact places at the table of all the victims in order to identify the bodies following the banquet massacre described in Chapter 11’s introduction.
Of course, as the text describes, memory has less of a significance for us than it did for the ancients, given how technologically inclined we are as a society. In fact, many entertainment media we consume rely on the fact that our emphasis on memory has diminished over time. They count on you to overlook maybe that one character on a long-running series once had a short-lived storyline with another, for example. Or perhaps that a journalist’s ethos was severely damaged after mis-reporting a story, as illustrated in my Mitch Albom-Jason Whitlock example. Maybe it’s as simple as your friend or significant other being friendly with someone who treated them poorly in the past. In any event, memory is a trait that is becoming less and less important to us. This made the topic (especially the ancients usage of it) extremely interesting to me. Memory may be less important to us in this digital age, but we should not allow it to continue to atrophy.
You know what they say about history and memory, after all…
Monday, November 1, 2010
Memory and Ethos Creates for a Winning Combination
First off, I loved this chapter. Hands down this has to be one of the best chapters so far. I also love the fact that I can actually attach a youtube clip of a song entitled “Memories” from the Weber musical “CATS” which actually demonstrates Crowley and Hawhee’s main argument in this chapter. But to be completely honest, I really fell in love with this chapter once Crowley and Hawhee started talking about “Literate Memory Systems” (383). In this section, they are completely talking my language especially when they mention the “Dewey decimal or Library of Congress cataloging systems”(385). Please do not even get me started on the “card catalogues” (385). Talk about memories and their (memories) influence on people, the card catalogues are the reason I am still a reader, writer and student. Last semester, I had to write a literary narrative paper for another Dr. Kearney class and I was amazed at how influential the role of card catalogues played in my literary development.
The real focus of this blog is about the relationship between memory and ethos. While reading this chapter, I could not help but to note how memory can positively or negatively impact the ethos of a rhetor and writer. More importantly, it appears in this chapter that if a person can memorize a great deal of things and successfully reproduce it either in a presentation or written statement that the individual will appear wise and gifted. For example, while at the conference in Savannah, I realized that some of the popular (well-known) and praised speakers were scholars who not only had been attending the organizations joint conference for years but were also the ones who had memorized their papers. These scholars were dynamite and engaging and when asked more in depth questions, they seemed to have been well read and mentioned numerous texts, articles and authors that interested listeners should become familiar with. Indeed, many people would say that is THE scholar on Shakespeare, etc. The reason this person was granted a favorable ethos is the fact that he or she had a fantastic memory and because he or she has provided plenty of examples from numerous texts. (Even in scholarly articles, readers love to see a well written piece that provides enough scholarly and accepted examples to declare that the writer is knowledgeable about his or her topic. For example, if I am writing a thesis on Alcott, you better believe that I will have numerous Madeline Stern examples cited throughout my piece since she is THE ALCOTT Scholar, otherwise, I will risk the rejection of my thesis because I have neglected to involve Stern in my work.). Crowley and Hawhee best summarize this thought when they write that “We often being reading a book by looking at its index, to see if it lists any terms related to our current research or if it lists the names of persons who are important thinkers in the area we are researching” (384).They also write that “Obviously, people who speak in public need reliable memories” since “memory requires an attunement during the moment of speaking or composing, a recognition of the right time for recalling an illustrated examples, argument, and so on” (375). Thus, a person can gain a reputable ethos, like being called a scholar, when he or she demonstrate that he or she has mastered the whole concept of memorization based on the audience’s positive feedback.
However, memorization and a good ethos are not only limited to speeches. Writers also strive to have a likeable ethos so that they can sell books. In the writing world, the ethos scholar is traded for the ethos of best selling author, Pulitzer Prize winner, etc. Thus we see that the most important part of the relationship between memory and favorable ethos is that the “Composition, whether written or oral, would then amount to selection, combination, and amplification of appropriate topics and their variations to suit a particular occasion” (377). Once again, we see that writing and speaking are complex processes that centers on a situational audience. In fact, Crowley and Hawhee write that “writers do have to be able to remember information or to recall where it is located and, more broadly, to remember what arguments they have heard on a particular issue before. It is also of a crucial importance to be aware of what events or knowledge might dominate the memories of a particular audience” (375).
This quote made me think about the article I am reading for this class. In the article, “Memory as Social Action. Cultural Projection and Generic Form in Civil Rights Memorials” by Victoria J. Gallagher, Gallagher tries to discuss the importance of the four civil rights monuments in the hope that readers will invest time in going to one or all four so that they can better understand the true history of the civil rights movement in this country. Crowley and Hawhee write that “we remember things we learn from teachers, parents, clergy, relatives and friends, the media and books, just as well as we remember experiences” (380). Thus, Gallagher discusses how these civil rights monuments allow visitors to recall these past events and lessons. She writes that “analyzing the built environment, including public memorials, monuments, and museums existing in the public spaces of urban America, is essential to understanding how cultural artifacts create, sustain and reproduce racial ideologies” (qtd in Sullivan and Goldzwig 150). This statement is suggestive of Crowley and Hawhee’s idea on cultural memory. They write that
“Cultural memory was formed after 9/11 in myriad ways: the continuous replay
on television of the disintegrating towers; photographs of victims pinned to every
available nearby surface-storefronts, telephone poles, fences; widespread praise
for heroic first responders; display of the American flag; expressed admiration for
New Yorkers and how they were able to pull together in the face of such dreadful
circumstances… give rise to new commonplaces or resurrect old ones…”
(Crowley and Hawhee 381).
We can see that these items serve to remind us what happened on that day. Gallagher, Crowley and Hawhee all believe that these items forever impact our lives and the items significance will forever reveal around the respective events (9/11 and the numerous events that occurred during the civil rights movement). Gallagher agrees with Crowley and Hawhee’s cultural memory theory when she writes that “inscribed in a memorial discourse, which both honors the accomplishments and reminds us of the tragic losses accrued during the civil rights movements of the 1950’s and 1960’s in the United States” (qtd. in Sullivan and Goldzwig 162).
However, Gallagher is aware that some visitors will be unfamiliar with the numerous events of the civil rights movement. She believes that in order to inform a post 60’s student with the commonplaces of the civil rights there needs to be “ an interest in learning about the past, not simply through reading history but also through ‘experiencing’ it via multiple modes … all the sites appeal to the multiple senses, particularly hearing and touch in addition to sight, and they seek to form emotional identification through physical layout, personal narratives, and juxtaposition of symbols and artifacts” (qtd. in Sullivan and Goldzwig 162). Otherwise, the civil rights memorials and their message will be lost and neglected. She even equates how two negative experiences (near one of the memorials were “several sites commemorating [the] Civil War and Civil War life in Montgomery, including the preserved and restored White House of the Confederacy and the location of the action block were slaves were bought and sold” and her second negative experience involved “two women at the city of Montgomery’s visitors center who, when asked for directions to the civil rights memorial, were quick to assure me that there were other sites more worthy of my time and attention”)influenced her experience at a particular monument and encouraged her to “provide a composite vision of the ongoing nature of racial identity development: education, remembrance, self-reflection, participation, and paradoxically, a break with the past” (qtd. in Sullivan and Goldzwig 162, 165, 171).
Thus, this chapter was an extremely interesting one. It obviously will be playing a large part in my article paper but it also showcases how both writers and rhetors can have a good ethos when they remember to invoke excellent examples and other well known scholars in their work. I love how words can mean thing to one group and different thing to another. Found two interesting tropes (metonymy) in this week’s reading. First off, the mention in the Gallagher article of “the White House of the Confederacy” was charming and priceless (qtd.in Sullivan and Goldzwig 162). If she had not added that it was a southern replica it would have confused the reader since most twenty-first century readers associate “‘the White House’ for the president of the United States” (Crowley and Hawhee 357). The second metonymy was the term “stacks” (386). Crowley and Hawhee define stacks as “The rooms and shelves that hold books” (386). For Penn State Harrisburg students, the term stacks can relate to the college’s cafeteria. Embarrassing but sadly true story. Last year was my first year here at PSH and I was walking from the parking lot into Olmstead. I heard some guy talking to another student about meeting up in the stacks later to go over their presentation. I have an old fashion library background and I was dumbfounded as to how the students were going to discuss their project because I knew what stacks meant. Two days later, a student asked me if I knew where stacks was and I said, yes. I told him that stacks are in the library and it appears to be mostly the second and third floors that have the most. The student thanked me and hurried away. I learned later from a fellow student that Stacks was the cafeteria and I was so embarrassed. So now I make it a point to verify what stacks or Stacks are in question.
The real focus of this blog is about the relationship between memory and ethos. While reading this chapter, I could not help but to note how memory can positively or negatively impact the ethos of a rhetor and writer. More importantly, it appears in this chapter that if a person can memorize a great deal of things and successfully reproduce it either in a presentation or written statement that the individual will appear wise and gifted. For example, while at the conference in Savannah, I realized that some of the popular (well-known) and praised speakers were scholars who not only had been attending the organizations joint conference for years but were also the ones who had memorized their papers. These scholars were dynamite and engaging and when asked more in depth questions, they seemed to have been well read and mentioned numerous texts, articles and authors that interested listeners should become familiar with. Indeed, many people would say that is THE scholar on Shakespeare, etc. The reason this person was granted a favorable ethos is the fact that he or she had a fantastic memory and because he or she has provided plenty of examples from numerous texts. (Even in scholarly articles, readers love to see a well written piece that provides enough scholarly and accepted examples to declare that the writer is knowledgeable about his or her topic. For example, if I am writing a thesis on Alcott, you better believe that I will have numerous Madeline Stern examples cited throughout my piece since she is THE ALCOTT Scholar, otherwise, I will risk the rejection of my thesis because I have neglected to involve Stern in my work.). Crowley and Hawhee best summarize this thought when they write that “We often being reading a book by looking at its index, to see if it lists any terms related to our current research or if it lists the names of persons who are important thinkers in the area we are researching” (384).They also write that “Obviously, people who speak in public need reliable memories” since “memory requires an attunement during the moment of speaking or composing, a recognition of the right time for recalling an illustrated examples, argument, and so on” (375). Thus, a person can gain a reputable ethos, like being called a scholar, when he or she demonstrate that he or she has mastered the whole concept of memorization based on the audience’s positive feedback.
However, memorization and a good ethos are not only limited to speeches. Writers also strive to have a likeable ethos so that they can sell books. In the writing world, the ethos scholar is traded for the ethos of best selling author, Pulitzer Prize winner, etc. Thus we see that the most important part of the relationship between memory and favorable ethos is that the “Composition, whether written or oral, would then amount to selection, combination, and amplification of appropriate topics and their variations to suit a particular occasion” (377). Once again, we see that writing and speaking are complex processes that centers on a situational audience. In fact, Crowley and Hawhee write that “writers do have to be able to remember information or to recall where it is located and, more broadly, to remember what arguments they have heard on a particular issue before. It is also of a crucial importance to be aware of what events or knowledge might dominate the memories of a particular audience” (375).
This quote made me think about the article I am reading for this class. In the article, “Memory as Social Action. Cultural Projection and Generic Form in Civil Rights Memorials” by Victoria J. Gallagher, Gallagher tries to discuss the importance of the four civil rights monuments in the hope that readers will invest time in going to one or all four so that they can better understand the true history of the civil rights movement in this country. Crowley and Hawhee write that “we remember things we learn from teachers, parents, clergy, relatives and friends, the media and books, just as well as we remember experiences” (380). Thus, Gallagher discusses how these civil rights monuments allow visitors to recall these past events and lessons. She writes that “analyzing the built environment, including public memorials, monuments, and museums existing in the public spaces of urban America, is essential to understanding how cultural artifacts create, sustain and reproduce racial ideologies” (qtd in Sullivan and Goldzwig 150). This statement is suggestive of Crowley and Hawhee’s idea on cultural memory. They write that
“Cultural memory was formed after 9/11 in myriad ways: the continuous replay
on television of the disintegrating towers; photographs of victims pinned to every
available nearby surface-storefronts, telephone poles, fences; widespread praise
for heroic first responders; display of the American flag; expressed admiration for
New Yorkers and how they were able to pull together in the face of such dreadful
circumstances… give rise to new commonplaces or resurrect old ones…”
(Crowley and Hawhee 381).
We can see that these items serve to remind us what happened on that day. Gallagher, Crowley and Hawhee all believe that these items forever impact our lives and the items significance will forever reveal around the respective events (9/11 and the numerous events that occurred during the civil rights movement). Gallagher agrees with Crowley and Hawhee’s cultural memory theory when she writes that “inscribed in a memorial discourse, which both honors the accomplishments and reminds us of the tragic losses accrued during the civil rights movements of the 1950’s and 1960’s in the United States” (qtd. in Sullivan and Goldzwig 162).
However, Gallagher is aware that some visitors will be unfamiliar with the numerous events of the civil rights movement. She believes that in order to inform a post 60’s student with the commonplaces of the civil rights there needs to be “ an interest in learning about the past, not simply through reading history but also through ‘experiencing’ it via multiple modes … all the sites appeal to the multiple senses, particularly hearing and touch in addition to sight, and they seek to form emotional identification through physical layout, personal narratives, and juxtaposition of symbols and artifacts” (qtd. in Sullivan and Goldzwig 162). Otherwise, the civil rights memorials and their message will be lost and neglected. She even equates how two negative experiences (near one of the memorials were “several sites commemorating [the] Civil War and Civil War life in Montgomery, including the preserved and restored White House of the Confederacy and the location of the action block were slaves were bought and sold” and her second negative experience involved “two women at the city of Montgomery’s visitors center who, when asked for directions to the civil rights memorial, were quick to assure me that there were other sites more worthy of my time and attention”)influenced her experience at a particular monument and encouraged her to “provide a composite vision of the ongoing nature of racial identity development: education, remembrance, self-reflection, participation, and paradoxically, a break with the past” (qtd. in Sullivan and Goldzwig 162, 165, 171).
Thus, this chapter was an extremely interesting one. It obviously will be playing a large part in my article paper but it also showcases how both writers and rhetors can have a good ethos when they remember to invoke excellent examples and other well known scholars in their work. I love how words can mean thing to one group and different thing to another. Found two interesting tropes (metonymy) in this week’s reading. First off, the mention in the Gallagher article of “the White House of the Confederacy” was charming and priceless (qtd.in Sullivan and Goldzwig 162). If she had not added that it was a southern replica it would have confused the reader since most twenty-first century readers associate “‘the White House’ for the president of the United States” (Crowley and Hawhee 357). The second metonymy was the term “stacks” (386). Crowley and Hawhee define stacks as “The rooms and shelves that hold books” (386). For Penn State Harrisburg students, the term stacks can relate to the college’s cafeteria. Embarrassing but sadly true story. Last year was my first year here at PSH and I was walking from the parking lot into Olmstead. I heard some guy talking to another student about meeting up in the stacks later to go over their presentation. I have an old fashion library background and I was dumbfounded as to how the students were going to discuss their project because I knew what stacks meant. Two days later, a student asked me if I knew where stacks was and I said, yes. I told him that stacks are in the library and it appears to be mostly the second and third floors that have the most. The student thanked me and hurried away. I learned later from a fellow student that Stacks was the cafeteria and I was so embarrassed. So now I make it a point to verify what stacks or Stacks are in question.
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