Astral Facts, February 2017
Astral: (Theosophy)
Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance
alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits;
astral bodies of persons; astral current.
Do You Copy? --- Just Jokin’
I suspect most of us have heard that “imitation is the sincerest
form of flattery,” but so far none of my students have used that concept yet as
a justification for plagiarism. Nonetheless,
it seems perfectly acceptable to take past concepts and ideas espoused by
others and tweak them a bit to adjust context and relevance and “Viola!” (as
they say in the French orchestra), we have a new and somewhat “original”
creation/text/work.
Shakespeare was quite adept at doing this, as scholars have
unearthed evidence of many sources for his works (http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sources/romeosources.html).
However, he padded the concepts
and templates with his own plot twists and turns, catchy phrases, and
contemporary references to make it all his own intellectual property that
resonated with the audiences of his time and since has ridden the rollercoaster
of the collective unconscious of professors and students ever since (many of the
latter having been put into an unconscious state in university classrooms).
Kurt Vonnegut has also
revealed an even more basic formula for “successful” plot structures that he
has filled in with his own “startling eccentricities” as the narrator says in
introducing this short clip (where he reveals how to grab a quick million
dollars):
Further scientific research has revealed that humor and jokes
also occur in some variation of eight different patterns leading to an
infinite combination merged with social,
political, and such contexts, which come from what the researcher Alastair
Clarke refers to when he says:
Basically
humour is all about information processing, accelerating faculties that enable
us to analyse and then manipulate incoming data…..In instances of humour these
patterns may be recognized individually or in any possible combination of the
eight. Most instances are founded on one or two, although theoretically there
is no limit to the number of patterns a person has recognized when they find
something funny. http://www.science20.com/news_releases/source_all_humor_alastair_clarkes_8_patterns_recognition
Thus, the joke about the Irish, English, and Scottish fellows
meeting in a bar can be revised as the Priest, Mullah, and Rabbi meeting at
Starbucks or the Redhead, Brunette, and Blonde meeting at a NASA conference.
These days, in our Postmodern Age, the patterns have taken on
the tone of satire and ridicule as the application tends toward the “deconstruction”
of the context, which stimulates the intellectual aspect through clever
manipulation of the context. This puts
the emphasis on technical expertise perhaps even more than upon content quality
or value. As Clarke puts it, “However, while all the patterns are relatively simple in
structure the activity of some forms of translation and recontextualization can
seem counter-intuitive at first sight” [Ibid].
The roots of this can be seen back in the 1950s when artists
created music “spoofs” by inserting lines and phrases from popular music or TV
commercials into story lines of quite different contexts. Although much of that relevance may be lost
today, people like Stan Freberg back in the 1950s were precursors to (and
probably cursed) artists as seen more recently in the creations of later
artists such as Weird Al Yankovic:
This spills into the academic arena as well:
(If you don’t get this last one, sign up for English 105: Grammar and Usage next time I teach it).
Next Month:
“Hunger
Games: Where in Panem are You?”
Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a somewhat regular presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices during the academic year.
Astral Facts is a somewhat regular presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices during the academic year.
