Orality and Literacy: "...we can never forget enough of our familiar present to reconstitute in our minds any past in its full integrity," pg. 15. (I explained my interest in an earlier blog)
The Art of Memory: "Let art, then, imitate nature, find what she desires, and follow as she directs," pg. 10. Looking at the best ways to construct a memory image, Yates suggests finding something that "arouses emotional affects" through images that are as striking as possible. Here she cites Ad Herennium, in which the author gives some grotesque image examples. We tend to find things beautiful or obscene only if they are out of the ordinary--thus provoking an emotional response. In this way, we are to use only striking images to our memory's advantage.
Wisdom of the Mythtellers: "Much revivalist mythology is really psychology, cutting across cultural difference with the mistaken assumption that there is a universal world of myth which is true to all peoples past and present because it is true to eternal powers in the human psyche," pg. 14. I'm a fan of Jung and Campbell, so I had to be provoked by this passage. It seems like Kane is suggesting that the archetype is a false impression; that there is no unconscious human understanding of the myth and its generally formulaic expression. He doesn't go into much detail to defend this claim in his prologue, though I hope he does later in the book. Maybe he is suggesting that we have fabricated this universal myth. He goes into a discussion about early humans and their origins, and perhaps he is just arguing that all myths were created essentially out of a singular beginning. I'm not sure what to think about this...
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