[lit-ideas] Re: Must the Word be Literate?
- From: "Paul Stone" <pastone@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 16:21:33 -0400
*I'm reminded of a silly movie called "johnny dangerously" starring the then
comedy actor Michael Keaton. Picture a jail with a row of picnic tables:
<http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000447/>*LIL to a parrot: Get this to Johnny on
the grapevine. Vermin is going to kill Johnny's brother at the savoy theater
tomorrow night. Got it?
*Polly the parrot*: Got it.
[*flies away*]
*Polly the parrot*: [*arrives at prison mess hall and lands on the shoulder
of a prisoner*] Vermin is going to kill Johnny's brother at the Savoy
theater. Pass it on.
*Prisoner*: [*to the next prisoner sitting next to him*] Vermin is going to
kill Johnny's brother at the Savoy theater tonight. Pass it on.
*Prisoner*: [*to the next prisoner, "telephone" style*] Vermin is going to
kill Johnny's mother at the Savoy theater tonight. Pass it on.
*Prisoner*: [*to the next prisoner*] Vermin's mother is going to kill Johnny
tonight at the Savoy theater. Pass it on.
*Prisoner*: [*to the next prisoner*]
[*unintelligible*]
*Prisoner*: ... at the Savoy. Pass it on.
*Prisoner*: There's a message through the grapevine, Johnny.
Johnny: Yeah? What is it?
*Prisoner*: Johnny and the Mothers are playing "Stompin' at the Savoy" in
Vermont tonight.
Johnny: Vermin's going to kill my brother at the Savoy theater tonight?
*Prisoner*: I didn't say that.
Johnny: No, but I know this grapevine.
Unfortunately, before literacy existed, all we had were glorified
grapevines, in the form of an "oral tradition" and they were/are notoriously
undependable.
I don't think a lasting society could even possibly be 'founded' or ' based'
on illiteracy. Once there is more than a generation of gap.... there's no
way to really 'know' the grapevine.
I'm not saying that History books are much more reliable, but they are
'more' reliable and absolutely accurate in that they are what they were.
paul
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