Yeah, I know, Carrol, that's the way with oral epics. Is it okay if (sacrificing a little accuracy for a good line) I called it memorizing books? The point is, if modern-day children's (or adults') habits included committing thousands of lines of poetry to memory, I don't think we'd call them aliterate.
cheers, Joanna S.
At 09:45 24-05-01, you wrote:
>Joanna Sheldon wrote:
> >
> > At 03:13 24-05-01, Joanna B. wrote:
> > >Homer probably couldn't read either...and yet, I don't think anyone would
> > >argue that it was a bad thing.
> >
> > ...Then again, if people were memorizing books instead of reading them, I
> > suppose aliteracy wouldn't really be an issue.
> >
>
>People didn't memorize books -- a small band of professional bards
>memorized and plagiarized each other and memorized the results of the
>plagiarism combined with their additions and emendations. People just
>listened to the result. Just like modern audiences for TV or movies.
>
>Carrol
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