Hi David

The message was meant to be on the poetryetc list. Strange thing it hasn't
appeared on it. I'll try sending it again. I'm not that familiar with the
Arabian Nights, but it seems to me that as opposed to the Persian
Shah-Nameh which I am quiet familiar with, the language of The Arabain
Nights has evolved of many various retellings, perhaps as bed-time stories
and fairytales as opposed to the faithful epic recitals which have carried
the rigid verse of Shah-Nameh through the generations.

Ali

At 12:00 AM 1/24/01 +0000, you wrote:
>Interesting post, Ali, and I'm inclined to concur with much of it. How does
>Homer compare with the Arabian Nights, which at least in translation seem to
>employ a lot of oral-style formulaic repetition?
>Was this post meant to be back channel or to the poetryetc list, btw, as it
>hasn't shown on the list?
>
>regards
>
>david
>----- Original Message -----
>From: ALI ALIZADEH <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2001 11:42 PM
>Subject: Re: getting back to spatiality
>
>
 Something about all the (clumsy?) repetitions in The Odyssey suggests to
me that the origins of this work were oral. Just about every canto begins
with the same line about morning, and every time there's a get together
it's the same "they drank hearty wine and ate chops of lamb" routine. Not
to mention the rather flat depiction of the main character who, it seems,
was made up on the spot and has very little space to develop beyond
'performing' in very 'public' events. A reflection on the text itself?
Ulysses is always 'tricky' and Athena's constantly 'bright-eyed'. A
'writer' like Virgil was much more conscious of his versification, meter
and characters than an 'orator' like Homer. Basically, I don't think
there's a great deal of thinking gone into Homer's epics, no where near as
what later Greek writers, Euripides and Sophocles unleashed. To me that's
an indication that The Odyssey was, quiet possibly, recited and turned into
'song-lyrics' first before being recorded in writing. But where's this
argument going anyway? Privileging speech over writing? In
poetry, of all things? God forbid!

Ali Alizadeh
>>
>>
>> ---- Original Message ----
>> From: david.bircumshaw
>> Date: Tue 1/23/01 17:34
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: getting back to spatiality
>>
>> Well, the true answer to your question is 'I don't know nor does anybody
>> else' but, rather than getting into a tangle of hypotheses about the
>> pedigree of Homer on the calendar, what is, I think, more moot is that
>oral
>> poetry in pre-literate cultures and the same in cultures that have reached
>> the point of saturation where script is necessary are NOT comparable.
>>
>> david bircumshaw
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: komninos zervos <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2001 2:54 AM
>> Subject: Re: getting back to spatiality
>>
>>
>> > david said
>> >
>> > >
>> > >I have this peculiar notion that the Oddysey and Iliad survive as
>books.
>> > >Odd, that.
>> >
>> > they survived for a long time before they were written down. no?
>> > komninos
>> >
>> >
>> > komninos's cyberpoetry site http://student.uq.edu.au/~s271502
>> > cyberpoet@slv site http://www.experimedia.vic.gov.au/cyberpoet/
>> > komninos zervos, tel. +61 7 5552 8872
>> > lecturer in cyberStudies,
>> > school of arts,
>> > gold coast campus,
>> > griffith university,
>> > pmb 50, gold coast mail centre
>> > queensland, 9726
>> > australia.
>> >
>>
>>
>