Memory, Imagination, Soul

Yates, p. 33: "Memory, he continues, belongs to the same part of the soul as the imagination; it is a collection of mental pictures from sense impressions but with a time element added, for the mental images of memory are not from perception of things present but of things past."

That one is able to remember leaves the question are the memories imagined more than memory. Most stories of when someone was younger are often told so many times, people think they remember them when in reality they are often simply imagining what is being told to them.

Yates, p. 45: "A power able to bring about such a number of important results is to my mind wholly divine. For what is the memory of things and words? What further is invention?...Assuredly nothing can be apprehended even in God of greater value that this...Therefore the soul is, as I say, divine, as Eruipides dares say, God..."

Yates, p. 45: "The soul's remarkable power of remembering things and words is a proof of its divinity; so also is its power of invention, not now in the sense of inventing the arguments or things of a speech, but in the general sense of invention or discovery."

Children Amaze Me

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

So I work at a daycare and am constantly amazed by the children I work with there. However, one little girl the other day who is about seven years old was sitting there playing and talking to herself. So I went over and asked her what she was doing to which she replied "Telling a story." I asked her if she could share thinking it would be some product of her imagination that she was throwing together haphazardly on the spot. She knocked my socks off however when she started reciting Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See line by line word by word knowing each animal that came after the former without missing a beat. To say the least I was impressed and inspired by this young girl sitting in front of me. That night I went home and started working on my fifty children's books, the inspiration for my choosing this subject being the little recitor.

Impossible! Sexson Thinks Not!

Here are two assignments that Sexson has given out that I find troubling however he did assure us that the task was not impossible.

1. Memorize 6 Languages Before Next Week
2. Go Learn All the Names of All the Books in the Library

My compliments go out to whoever thinks they can accomplish this;)

Locations of the Muses That Have Taken Over

Their Positioning

1. Erato - Thermostat (Because she is HOT!)
2. Clio - Chalkboard (Cause she is all about the history lecture)
3. Urania - Screen (Cause she is above us all in the universe)
4. Thalia - Quiet Desk (Because the desk is just plain funny)
5. Polyhymnia - Overhead Projector (Cause hymns were put on there to be sung at church)
6. Terpsichore - Old Desk (Because there is a little person dancing under it)
7. Caliope - Bulletin Board (Cause it is epic?)
8. Uterpe - Snowman (Seriously- "Frosty the Snowman, was a jolly happy soul,...."
9. Malpomene- Weird F (Because it looks like the Nazi symbol)

And there you have it.

Memorizing your 50!!!!!

Alex mentioned in class the other day that he was afraid that you are just getting into too much when you are foced to use a tool to memorize something instead of just simply memorizing it. To counter this, I turn to Frances A. Yates.

Chapter 1

"The artificial memory is established from places and images." p. 6

"Those who know the letters of teh alphabet can write down what is dictated to them and read out what they have written. Likewise those who have learned mnemonics can set in places what they have heard and deliver it from memory." p. 7

"It is essential that the places should form a series and must be remembered in their order, so that we can start from any locus in the series and move either backwards or forwards from it." p. 7

"If these have been arranged in order, the result will be that, reminded by the images, we can repeat orally what we have committed to the loci, proceeding in either direction from any locus we please." p. 7

"But the loci remain in the memory and can be used again by placing another set of images for another set of material." p. 7

"In order to make sure that we do not err in remembering the order of the loci it is useful to give each fifth locus some distinguishing mark." p. 7

"It is better to form one's memory loci in a deserted and solitary place for crowds of passing people tend to weaken the impressions. Therefore the student intent on acquiring a sharp and welldefined set of loci will choose an unfrequented building in which to memorise places." p. 7

"Memory loci should not be too much like one another, for instance too many intercolumnar spaces are not good, for their resemblance to one another will be confusing." p. 7

There is also a big long set of rules for images but I will let you use your book and turn to pages 8 and 9 for further explanation. Thanks to all of these, the memorization of fifty things seems far less daunting and more achievable.