Or at least what I'm doing seems to be.
Just like the greek bards of old, one has certain phrases, certain stanzas, certain jokes, certain demonstrations, certain tricks for maintaining audience attention, certain lines that are used and re-used and carefully polished and honed and crafted over a long length of time.
Each class, each tale of Cunning Odysseus or swift-footed Achilles (note the traditional epithets preceding the name that help the meter flow and basically take up space) is slightly different, and yet is the same. It follows essentially the same formula, the same patterns.
The Trojan War is over. Odysseus braves lots of dangers. Odysseus makes it home. The specifics change, but the story remains the same.
Maybe it's just the whole oral tradition of presentation in general.
I just find it amusing how easy (for humans) yet tricky (in a craftsman-like sense) it is to build up an hours-long aural flow, from cobbled together parts used over and over.
No comments:
Post a Comment