Skip to main content

Appreciating the Oral Tradition

If only I had pushed in the direction of podcasts and audio books years ago, instead of waiting to discover this world during the lockdown! For years I have complained that reading books was a miserable activity during winter evenings, especially when camping. Even the most hard-core optimist would admit that reading is tedious. I would rather just blurt out that reading is unsociable, glum, and lifeless. It is an unnatural and annoying activity.

Furthermore, we sometimes forget how recently the printed word has come to dominate the Oral Tradition. I envy my grandparents' generation for being able to listen to the Golden Age of Radio on a winter evening on their farms. Go back even further than that and you have the world of theatre, live and on stage, where the playwright's words are 80% of the show. My generation caught the end of the (tawdry) newspaper era, but saw the hegemony of movies (aka, eye candy) and television (aka, chewing gum for the eyes.)

It would be interesting to pull Socrates through a time machine, into our age, and hear him explain why Truth is better approached through the ears than through scribbles in books.

I am still working on the History of English podcasts, and find it more and more interesting. I heard a sample of "The Odyssey" read by a professional actor. What an under-appreciated talent some people have in their voice! Sagas, epics, and tall tales are probably the direction I should go -- after all, those stories arose during the hegemony of the Oral Tradition.

Audiobooks of Jack London books seem promising, as do sea voyages or polar expeditions.

What about an audio book of Boswell's "Life of Johnson?"


Comments

XXXXX said…

All that is well and good and I'm glad you found something that works for you. I cannot seem to benefit from just listening to a voice. My mind will simply drift. I need to LOOK at the speaker or read the book for myself. I love to read. Books are my most appreciated possession. Being in my study which is full of books I have read and loved is my favorite place. The written word has brought and continues to bring the entire world to me. It is the way I escape the insanity of our present society and go to the best parts of days gone by and have a conversation with the wisest souls of history.
Scribbles on papyrus or parchment were available a couple thousand years ago. But the means to store or transfer sound have only been available the last century.

Were it not for this technological accident, sound-writing would be superior and more important than scribble-eye-writing. After all, speech is a fundamental and older part of our brains.

Speech is more "natural" in that sense than scribbles.
George, I agree with everything you said about books except "I love to read." Please differentiate the End from the Means. Everything you praise about scribble-books could apply just as well -- or even better -- to audio books. Speech-sound-hearing is superior to its symbolic representation on paper and typewriter.
XXXXX said…


Yes, the end is the goal. I think you have better developed auditory skills than I do.

George
William said…
Why are you just now discovering podcasts and audiobooks, KB?

I am, like George, an avid reader and a very poor listener. I have always hated lectures during the time I have spent in formal education. I am not even aware of the fact I am reading, it is like breathing. I hate words printed on clothing as I cannot stop myself from reading them.

Also, a normal speech pattern dispenses 125-150 words per minute. I read at about twice that rate. So, even if I could get the information verbally (I can't), I am able to obtain twice as much information in the same time frame.

A caveat: while I read for pleasure (mostly), I only read non-fiction. The Oral Tradition you refer to, I obtain from movies, music, and non-fiction television programs like Nature and Nova. I never use electronic mediums for political or economic news.

Congratulations, KB, on finding an enjoyable way to live out the rest of your life!
William, yes, we can read faster than anyone can talk, but that just encourages the excessive wordiness of authors. Besides, increasing the quantity of words is of little value in itself. Quality matters more.

It appears true that George and you are eye-mongers. (grin)