Whoa! Tangent.

"Aristotle's theory of memory and reminiscence is based on the theory of knowledge which he expounds in his De anima. The perceptions brought in by the five senses are first treated or worked upon by the faculty of imagination, and it is the images so formed which become the material of intellectual faculty. Imagination is the intermediary between perception and thought" (Yates 32).

I really like this idea of imagination preceding knowledge - it's like we can't know anything until we've imagined it in our own head first. I might see a squirrel with a nut and at first just see a hungry squirrel. But then I can see him returning to his little home in a big tree, bringing the nut to share with his little squirrel babies and his loving squirrel wife. Then, they'll all sit together at their little table and eat together, while planning a family picnic out on the lawn of some big house with the best trees and nuts in town. All of the sudden, I have a thought to write a children's story about a squirrel family. Genius. Ok, so I don't actually "know" that the squirrel has a life beyond gathering nuts, but being intellectual isn't merely based on knowing truth. If that were the case, then all of those intellectual storytellers would be out of a job, because aren't they just regurgitating what they've heard? I mean, sure, it may have been considered truth at the time, but does anyone actually believe that Odysseus encountered a giant cyclops that ate some of his crew? Why didn't cyclops get to tell his story? And how come he didn't make any baby cyclopses (word? yes? no.) with a lady cyclops? Maybe because he was the only one in existence, ever? But anyway, my point is, it takes an imagination to picture a little squirrel family, or a cyclops with a hankering for sailors, or global warming for some people ;) But if it's true for them, it's true. It's a thought that they'll have forever: avoid huge caves that may harbor a giant one-eyed man - it's cyclops, and he's not a nice man. Or, don't mess with the salmon in the river, or the river goddess will eff you up. I think in the sense of oral storytelling, the "truth" is perceived with active imaginations, and then the thought of whether to take it seriously or not is the part that leads to so-called "intellectualism." But, on the flip side, if my senses pick up the smell of cupcakes outside of my mom's house, and I imagine the delicious morsels in my mind, the thought of them (and my obsession for cupcakes) will lead me to the truth: my mom...is burning a cupcake scented candle. Fudge. No, wait, not fudge. Cupcakes.

That's a whole 'nother subject though - memory smells - I know personally, every time I smell cinnamon I think about Big Red gum and how my friends and I used to lick the wrappers and then stick them to our face and see who could stand the burning sensation the longest. Fun times! And every time I smell Abercrombie & Fitch cologne, I think of one of my guy friends who had a serious obsession with it in high school and made me gag every day at our lockers. Would those count as "thinking memorable thoughts?" That reminds me - in class today, Sexson said that it's easier to remember grotesque and tragic things...shouldn't it be easier to remember pleasant things? Like the day your kids are born? Ew, never mind - birth is disgusting (so I hear. I mean, I know I was a part of it, but luckily I have no memory of that grotesque act of womb-exit). Wait, here's one - I remember the day...ok, so every major even I'm trying to think of is either kinda sad, really sad, or not really that good of a memory. Oh, hey, this one time I turned 21 and I actually don't remember that at all. Whatever. Ooo! I have a good one - the day I made cheer leading when I was in 8th grade. I knew my freshman year of high school was going to be awesome, and it totally was. I even became a better speller....through memory! Woo hoo! I think by my senior year I knew like 200 cheers, and most of them involved spelling...a-tt-a-c-k, b-e-a-gg-r-e-ss-i-v-e, b-o-z-e-m-a-n, h-a-w-k-s, r-o-w-d-y AND r-o-w-d-i-e (who knew there were variations on that word?) and the list goes on and on...

Ok, I think I've gone on a good long tangent, that, if spoken would make WAY more sense. After reading what I just wrote, I'll go ahead and say "sorry you just read all of that. please don't judge me in class."

Ciao!