Visualize a Hunchback

Some recollect with aplomb

Their visual memory, a balm

The triumph of reading

May be misleading

Nous n'oublions pas Notre-Dame

The reading for this week, on metamemory and memory theory, naturally makes one start to consider how they formulate their own memories. The system of developing memory loci makes a great deal of sense once one considers one’s own relationship with locations and associated memories. When in a location, it is easy to immediately invoke strong memories associated with the place that can be shockingly detailed. Visual memory is one of our most powerful tools (though I would personally argue that scent memory is the most evocative of experience, though far more difficult to imagine and deliberately construct) for structured and deliberate recollection. The implications of this as people moved from an oral tradition to a written tradition are outlined in “The Art of Memory”.

One of the questions related to this, and covered to a degree by Hugo is what happens when print becomes ubiquitous? As communication technology improves, people are able to spend less and less mental energy on the act of memory, and they foist the responsibility of storing data onto external sources. This has its good points (mass accessibility) as well as its bad points (reduced mental discipline, reliance on ephemeral objects) and this discussion continues in earnest with the birth of each new technology.

One thing that struck me about this reading, referenced by the authors only obliquely, is the astonishing capacity of the brain to generate and retain detailed visual imagery. Despite generations of people adapting to the written word, our most potent tools of recollection are visual. When calling to mind a scene in a book, attentive readers do not summon images of the words on the page, but representative images of what is described. Who among us read the Hugo, considering the power of architecture and writing, and did not immediately picture a building of sweeping majesty (and likely personal resonance)? Can architecture be destroyed by writing? Never while people continue to imagine buildings.

The Great National Myth

A pedagogic component to art

Will help keep your nation quite smart

Make citizens compliant

Just a bit self-reliant

And from your domain they’ll not part

This is the second time I’ve read the Aenied for a class, and so I have a little bit of background in it. While it co-opts the style of Homer’s writing, its agenda is somewhat different. If we suppose that Homer’s purpose (in part) was to use the Iliad and the Odyssey as ways of passing on a cultural encyclopedia to the Greeks, to teach them their own cultural identity—Homer’s ideal of what the Greeks should be, the Aenied is the deliberate act of Virgil to push patron Augustus Caesar’s political agenda for Rome.

In the Aenied, Virgil has created a cultural myth of shared identity, drawing on common stories and shared religious concepts to offer legitimacy to a set of values and a past that all Romans can take pride in. These values are expressed through story in a variety of ways. When Aeneas sees those being punished in the underworld, their crimes are more than just myths—they are warnings for Roman citizens against undesirable behavior. Likewise, in a circular fashion, Virgil increases Augustus Caesar’s legitimacy as a ruler by gifting him with this divine (and seemingly pre-ordained) heritage.

Ultimately, Virgil and Augustus Caesar both saw the dazzling potential of utilizing an epic poem as a means of civic education and they seized upon that opportunity to create the Rome that they wanted to see. In writing this blog, I was discussing these concepts with Amy and trying to articulate what other circumstances where people have created a work of art or narrative piece with the explicit agenda of defining a national identity or unifying a people into a shared identity group. The only things we could think of are religious texts, most particularly the Torah. I would be curious to see what other people think of when they think of these kinds of works.

Absolute Truthiness

The cave is quite the sensation

For those intent on the provocation,

Your concept of Truth

Might to me be uncouth,

But whose absolute sways the nation?

Plato’s “True World” outside the cave is equivalent to Latour’s concept of Science (the politicization of the sciences through epistemology in order to render ordinary political life impotent through the threat of an incontestable nature.) Latour calls out the obvious problem with the cave allegory: the very existence of an inviolable, incontrovertible Truth. “Because, without [the division], there would be no more reservoir of incontrovertible certainties that could be brought in to put an end to the incessant chatter of obscurantism and ignorance. There would no longer be a sure way to distinguish what is true from what is false. One could no longer break free of social determiners to understand what things themselves are…”

Throughout history, people have sought guarantors of absolute truth, something to tell us what is Right and what is Wrong. Perhaps Plato’s saving grace in his exploration of the cave analogy is that he doesn’t offer his thesis there of what is Right, but merely points out that there IS Right and Wrong, Truth and Falsehood.

Educators have to be wary of absolute truth being dangled in front of them. There are few ideas more seductive than those of absolutes. Everyone wants assurances that they are right and that their way is the right way. We all think that we are the enlightened ones, obligated to return to the cave out of a selfless sensibility—but no one knows anything for certain.

Philosopher Plato sat in his cave,

With flick'ring shadows that would not behave

These false appiritions

Encompassed his vision

And were the reality most crave

With this prompt, I find my two classes intersecting in a beautiful way. Two weeks ago I had to write about my personal philosophy of education. As a graduate of progressive institutions, I had always received an education that focused explicitly on interdisciplinary connections, critical thinking and analytic reasoning. It wasn’t until I got much older that I realized that this was not a normal educational experience. So to comment directly to the discussion prompt: I feel that preparing a person to lead an examined life should be one of the primary educational objectives and that it is very feasible, particularly at a time in technological development where the need for people to have raw information memorized is growing less and less relevant. Of far greater importance is people’s ability to critically reason, draw connections and apply problem-solving and deductive reasoning to a variety of subjects.

These educational developments and directions owe themselves in some part to Plato’s ideas, though they thankfully recognize the relevance of art, poetry and metaphor as “pointing the soul upwards” as well. While Plato’s list of prescribed subjects was extremely limited, it is to be understood that he was proposing a pedagogical revolution and thus had a great deal to consider. Educational practice should function to constantly point the soul upward and allow everyone the opportunity to enrich themselves through learning about themselves and the world around them. Havelock focuses a great deal on explaining exactly how difficult Plato’s task was and how important the development of writing was to permitting that. Right now we face a similar period in educational evolution. With all this information available at our fingertips, “what” teachers should teach becomes significantly less important than “why” and “how” teachers should teach it. Were Plato alive to assess modern education, hopefully he would feel more amenable to the role of art, though he might still wonder why so much emphasis is placed on memorization when students should be taught analytic skills.