Even though I devoured everything sword and sorcery I could could as a teenager, I never did get around to reading Beowulf. I mean it had everything I could ever want - heroes, dragons, damsels in distress and even demons with cool names like Grendel but something kept me away. Maybe it was my bad experience with the non-poetic version of the Iliad. Now, I don't have an excuse, and I'm not saying that because the insight I've gained on the epic poem as an oral tradition in Dr. Foley's class has thoroughly prepared and inspired me. I say that now because, thanks to Robert Zemeckis, reading the book is as easy as going to the movies.

Yes, the computer-animated, motion-captured movie version of probably the oldest known oral tradition opens in multi-plexes across the nation next week, complete with an animated naked Angelina Jolie. I'm not sure what I really think of this project. I guess in the spirit of oral tradition, this truly epitomizes re-performance. A master storyteller - if you count Back to the Future, Castaway, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? as masterpieces - has made the tale his own using modern tools. The writer, Neil Gaiman, better known for the comic book the Sandman - said he tried to stick pretty closely to the original story in an Entertainment Weekly interview, so I guess this could really introduce a whole new crowd to Olde English poetry, right?

Then again, this hardly qualifies as an oral performance. Knowing Hollywood, there's no way they'll allow any one else to even distribute their version for less than a $10 ticket, let alone alter it for specific audiences. No matter what a movie is based on, it remains a text. It's an experience you are meant to participate once. The only control you exert over it is deciding when to dash out for a little popcorn or Junior Mints.

The movie's advertising doesn't help. "Unlike anything you will see this year, 'Beowulf' represents a decade long quest for ..." blah, blah, blah. Sounds to me like they are billing this as the definitive version.

Surprisingly on the official site, the producers are sponsoring a machinima contest. It will be interesting to see what users can produce using "pre-cut video clips from the original trailer and from Sony Playstation’s game 'LAIR'." Will it be as transcendent as the ancient bard's tale that preceded this myth? Probably not, but I think it's a step in the right direction. This movie may be a text, but it and its online presence might help some people think beyond its textuality and toward the oral tradition that spawned it. If nothing else, maybe it will make the difference for the kid, who like me, is on the fence about reading it.

I've been struggling lately with what to write about. I've been trying to focus on my wiki, but I think I've probably bitten off more than I can chew. In trying to apply the oral tradition (the oAgora) to the new media (what Dr. Foley calls the eAgora), I struggle to find true online examples of the interactivity and context that would make electronic communication truly like oral. My latest idea is to make this a true wiki, where everyone has the opportunity to add their own examples. Maybe all I have to do is establish the criteria and the rules. That's when I stumbled on what might be the greatest application of the oral tradition online - the wiki itself.

I'm a huge wiki fan. I use wikipedia constantly, and I enjoy correcting people who think it's less accurate than Encyclopedia Brittanica. I also love wikia, the online platform the wikipedia folks provide for others to use. (For some great examples, see Lawrence Lessig's wiki, this great collection of computer game wikis, and even a wiki for the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game.)

The video and card game communities especially demonstrate how the Internet works better as an oral than a textual tradition. Of course, most of the information on these sites are textually based, but they offer such a high level of interactivity that none of these texts are really permanent. They are all just iterations of one tradition. On the game sites, I think you also see the application of reperformance. I know I'm a geek, but I love to watch the replays people save of their Defense of the Ancients games. (One warning: If you really want to watch these, you need to have Warcraft 3 installed on your computer.) I also love the machinima tradition. I have already mentioned using graphics from computer games to make your own videos, but I don't think I've accurately encapsulated the wealth of art that exists. If you don't believe me, here is a simple YouTube search. I really enjoyed this video that shows how it all comes together.


Most of these movies are also released under the creative commons license which allows others to recut and re-edit them. One organization even provides the tools and the forum to encourage people to use them. I dare you to watch more than three of the videos without getting hooked. My son's only five and he's already trying to create his own videos.

I know I'm only scratching the surface here, and probably confusing more people than I'm helping. But it's helpful for me to think through my final project ideas in public, and hopefully I'm introducing you to something new.

I met Lawrence Lessig at an academic conference two years ago and was very impressed by what he had to say. He gave a great leg up to the citizen journalism movement that I was just getting involved with then. But just like a kid who won't eat his vegetables, it took the this class to compel me to read his book. I'm glad I have started because he has a clear way of explaining the need for freedom, at least on some levels, online. I also appreciate his realism. He doesn't call for absolute freedom. He doesn't decry all regulation. He calls for compromise, which I'm convinced will lead to the most innovation possible.

When I read about the creative commons and the code level, I couldn't help but think of one example, and I hope this example also serves to illustrate some of Lessig's points more concretely. Jonathan Coulton is a popular folk singer / songwriter. The first time I heard his song "Code Monkey" I couldn't get it out of my head. It's funny, sweet and geeky all at the same time. But the first time I heard it wasn't on one of Coulton's CDs or even one of his live performances. I saw it on YouTube as the soundtrack to a machinima using World of Warcraft graphics. (Actually Mike Spiff Booth has made a number of great videos for Coulton's songs. Check them all out here.)
So how is this possible? Most of what Coulton releases, and I have to give him credit for making it very clear, are released under the creative commons license. In other words, he doesn't mind if after you've purchased one of his songs, you use it however you want. He even lets you name your own price for what you are willing to pay.
When I first heard of this, I thought Coulton was nuts. Why would such a great talent squander his work? But then I got to thinking about it, and I'm not sure exactly how well he's done, but in today's corporate world, I wonder if a song about computer programmers would ever appeal on a CD. Is the Internet his way of "sticking it to the man"? Or is he just a performer in the tradition of the oral poets who is more satisfied with sharing his stories than profiting from them?
I think that's the easy answer because like Lessig suggests, Coulton doesn't give away everything he does. I think he has effectively used creative commons in way to remove the typical barriers to entry in the music industry. Maybe he'll never be as big as Britney Spears this way (and who would really want to right now?) but he has established a loyal fan base by doing something he loves. What's wrong with that?

I'm a bit guilty I have neglected this blog for a while (although, rest assured Dr. Foley, I'm still well within the the class requirements.) I've enjoyed this experience quite a bit. But what has vexed me lately is my final project. I was interested in this class because of the fantastic work Dr. Foley has done in utilizing the power of the Internet to its fullest advantage. I think he really gets a lot of what I have been studying (see for example the work of interactivity scholar Sheizaf Rafaeli), and he makes it clear with his theory that the Internet is closer to an oral tradition than a textual one.

What has vexed me, however, is trying to find examples and maybe overextending myself a bit. I wrote about one last week, and that might have been my closest attempt. Other ideas that classmates proposed, such as the orality of instant messaging, show promise, but most of my hare-brained ideas, such as YouTube as oral performance, fall flat. In the end, the best YouTube video or machinima or citizen journalist contribution or even World of Warcraft excursion is by definition a text. They lack the interactive elements that inform reperformance or even dissection and perpetuation that a great epic like the Iliad or the South Slavic epics do.

I'm still puzzling through this conundrum, but I wanted to share a few sites I have found that might fit the bill. I'll probably add to this list later, so please check back. Actually, as a newly educated blogger, maybe I'll just add them to my blog roll. To anyone who reads this and knows anything about oral traditions, poems and epics, please let me know what you think. Am I taking the comparison too far or am I expanding the definition?

Thanks in advance.

I really liked browsing this site on Native American Oral Poetry. I think it could really benefit from ethnopoetics or more multi-media applications, but it's a good collection of tales.

A great historical explanation of the Serbian oral tradition, but how can you explain it without providing actual examples. Heck, they could probably link to the Oral Traditions site.

Leave it to Harvard to create a great background on the oral tradition of Homer, but their multimedia is lacking as well. It's just a couple of classroom videos. (And it uses RealPlayer. Yuck, get with the times. Embed flash videos please, so I don't have to exit my browser.)

Here's a fun site for a performing troupe, but it seems they really do present traditional Bulgarian oral poems. The heroic poems seemed especially fun. I wish I could afford to book them.

I found a couple of interesting slam poetry sites, but I'll list those later. I did want to list this YouTube search, however, to show how many recordings of slam poetry events exist. Maybe that's my "in".

BTW, I didn't quite get this one, but it was my favorite of the ones I watched. It presents a really interesting dicotomy. Who is the poem about - the woman or the dude in the wheelchair?

Throughout this class, I have tried to find links between oral traditions and my modern world. I am a child of the media, who grew up maybe too close to the TV and the computer. As much as I have learned to appreciate the nuances of oral performance and the importance of early traditions, I still think I'd rather plunk myself down in front of a glowing box.
However, in researching my final project, I think I've stumbled upon not only an oral tradition I can embrace, but also an example of how the influence of ancient performers have influenced our storytelling today. The latest issue of the online journal Oral Tradition focuses on the work of Bob Dylan and how his songwriting and performing mirrors ancient oral poetry.
I shouldn't admit this, but I'm not a huge fan of Dylan. It's something about his voice that rubs me the wrong way. I do, however, recognize his unique contributions to music, and I respect him for his body of work and his willingness to cross and even mute traditional boundaries. Reading about his performance art in the journal has helped me to see how a master storyteller might have transmitted culture in ancient days. It's also helped me to realize the vital role the actual performance plays in the transmission. Maybe I don't appreciate Dylan as much as I should because I've never seen him perform live. I've just listened to his recordings, and honestly, only those recordings that are widely available.
I can, however, relate better to Bruce Springsteen because I've been a voracious fan of his since my teens (1986 to be exact). I own all his CDS, and my favorites are the less commercial ones (Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad).More importantly, I've seen him in concert once and I've also been pretty focused on obtaining bootleg recordings of his other shows. In him, I can see the difference between live and Memorex to borrow an ad slogan. Springsteen's songs are full of meaning, but they have even more power when performed live. Even songs that were not originally his gain new power when he belts them out onstage. I saw Springsteen in Las Vegas and he began and ended his nearly three hour long show by squeezing as much energy and fun and celebration out of Elvis' "Viva Las Vegas" as possible. I never really even liked the song until he performed it. More importantly, I also saw the true power some of his ballads have when he joined first his wife and then his whole bad for a muted rendition of "If I Should Fall Behind". Nothing was as meaningful to me as the stripped down version of "Born in the USA" he offered alone on his acoustic guitar. There are good version of it on YouTube, if you want to check it out.
While this class has taught me to appreciate performers like Dylan and Springsteen more, it has also made me want to know more about the traditions that informed and inspired them. Often, I've wished I could have sat in on some of the Zuni tales or the South Slavic epics. Thanks to ethnopoetics I can get a glimpse, but I still have to wonder if it's quite the same. Just as I can watch Bruce on YouTube, hopefully more people will take advantage of the 'Net to transmit the important cultural messages of our ancient traditions.