epics and oral traditions

[JR Gardner]

Perhaps I'm just overly looking to take a break from my curent writing,
but the point made below (especially as I'm occupied with Vedic accent and
meter these days)  is quite on the mark (or, to point: "on the
marketing"):: 

On Fri, 6 Jun 1997, Dan Lusthaus wrote:

> One last example: How many of us remember even a single word of any
> textbook we read in third grade? Yet if we hear some meaningless commercial
> jingle from that period, or some song we utterly hated at the time, how
> many of us almost involuntarily begin to sing along and perhaps feel like
> we are meeting up with an old friend? Memory, not ink, fixates texts.
> 
> Dan Lusthaus
> Florida State University

I would append the last line-  Through rhythm, Memory . . . fixates texts.
For it is with meter and accent that deviation is easily revealed, even in
the arrangement, for instance, of the hymns in the family books of the RV.

respectfully,

JR Gardner
University of Iowa
http://vedavid.org