Responses to Thoughts

Oral Traditions

2005-04-27T08:26:00.000-07:00

What I gained from this class was a sense of what the oral tradition and the oral culture is and was. Sometimes it made me a little sad, there was a constant feeling of nostalgia looming over the Ong and Kane books. But I guess those books and classes like this are keeping the oral tradition alive. Not only is the oral tradition still alive in our modern, everyday lives, but it is highly relevant as well. This is probably the most valuable thing I've learned from this class: the relevance of oral cultures and memory in my life. It makes me think of knowledge, of what it is, in a completely different way. Knowledge and wisdom are traits that one inherits and internalizes through learning and through experiences. It's always in you although you may not always realize its there. This is where memory comes in, to invoke internalized knowledge and to shape experiences. What does experience mean unless you have the knowledge to give it meaning? The meaning applied is what transforms into personal knowledge, which is then used as a tool for living a valued life. I guess the most prominent aspect of Ong's 9 characteristics, for me, was orality's agonistic qualitity. Adding and building upon knowledge is what will ultimately lead to wisdom. Our memories are so amazing this way because we can store knowledge and keep it there, if we learn how. By the time I'm 80, I'll(hopefully) have a plethora of knowledge and it will all make sense to me. I will then write a book of everything I learned and pass on my anticipated wisdom.

Papers

2005-04-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

Today we listened to some more paper presentations. I was especially interested in both Ed's topic and Mick's, because they were rather closely related. Ed discussed how oral narrators think they are recalling things verbatim when actually their stories are constantly changing. Ed said something that really stuck out. He talked about how traditional oral storytellers would absorb their information, intimately, sort of get to know it and deeply internalize it before they presented it while today's literate culture tends to "cram" a bunch of information into their minds and then regurgitate it just to forget it later on. Obviously the former method is more effective, and I've often thought so, especially in college. In college, there is a mass amount of information being directed at the student, about all kinds of subjects. I feel this way every day, and I often get frustrated because I don't have enough time to think about what I learn, so I often feel like I don't know anything. That's why I love spring break, or summer break especially. Then, I have time to think over what I've learned and internalize it in my head, and organize how I feel; only then am I able to figure out a way to apply it to my life. Then it becomes truly useful to me.

This relates to Mick's paper. He investigated what we've learned in this class so he could better understand it. Writing a paper definitely helps to further understand and internalize the topic on which you're writing. Interesting stuff, once you think about it.

Oral vs. Written Stories

2005-04-26T12:40:00.000-07:00

I googled "oral storytelling" and found a site by author Steve Denning on Oral versus Written Stories. In it, he writes how oral stories are not like written stories in that they are not descriptions of an event or events that took place at a time in history. Instead, oral accounts are assumed to be taking place in the moment, and are therefore in constant motion. He writes that the renewal of oral stories requires participation to create new aspects of the stories, and in writing, the story ends up with a sense of fixation; it's static.

What he later argues that I don't necessarily agree with is that oral accounts lack authenticity. What is more real than present, active participation in the telling of history? This is a narrow-minded opinion that, unfortunately, several apply to. If it's not in writing, or tangible, then it's not real. I argue that the authenticity of a written document is just as questionable as the authenticity of an oral account. The search for truth, or what is considered truth, is ongoing and will probably never be settled or agreed upon.

If anyone would like to read this, check it out at www.stevedenning.com

Sherman Alexie

2005-04-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

I really enjoy Sherman Alexie's writing. It's real, it's funny, and it's honest. Lastnight I saw him speak (as I'm sure many of my classmates also did) in the SUB. My face hurt by the end of his speech from laughing. It was a stand-up comedy act rather than a speech, yet he projected some really strong messages at the same time. I liked how he made his audience realize how great our country is. Compared to the way things used to be, we've made a lot of progress. It's hard to concentrate on these positive things sometimes, particularly during a war. I also liked his perspective on the war. His "they're just jealous" approach made sense while being very funny as well. His final message, to develop a sense of humility within ourselves, was, appropriately, the strongest. He advised his audience that the next time you find yourself so sure of something, to say to yourself, "I might be wrong." What a concept.
What I like most was his outspoken-ness. There were no barriers between him and us, he didn't set it up that way. He was venting, he was letting us know how he felt and, oddly enought, how some of us felt. He cut through all of the surface appearances of things and went right to the core of the matter, from his perspective.

Here is Sherman Alexie's official website: www.fallsapart.com

After the fact

2005-04-21T18:06:00.000-07:00

Today groups 1,2, and 3 presented their papers. Once again, I was very impressed. Mick gave his demonstration of Bobby Fisher's "best game of the century." That would be so hard to memorize. Faith talked about her audio story experience, and that, nowadays, audio books are practically one of our only links to oral cultures. Heather's paper was inspired by the movie "Waking Life." She talked about the symbolic quality of words and how this becomes problematic when trying to express emotions. Maybe that's why I cry so much; I just can't find the words, maybe they don't exist. I liked the Indian music that Josh played for us, and I thought his topic was really intriguing. I went today, and unfortunately I choked. I couldn't find the words to express my thoughts. I blanked, lost my train of thought, and couldn't get back on track. All I wanted to do once I got up there was sit down. Oh well, these things happen and I'm willing to bet I'll forget about it in no time. Gotta go, I'm going to watch Sherman Alexie speak tonight!

Paper Presenting

2005-04-21T10:15:00.000-07:00

I'm really nervous to present my paper to the class today, and I don't know why. I think, maybe, it's because I am so LITERATE! I can write and write and write, but when asked to talk about what I'm writing; I can't! Why is this? This is happening in one of my other classes too. We've been working on these articles for so long, and tomorrow we're supposed to tell the class what our stories are about and every time I try to articulate it, I end up saying something like, "well, it's kind of about relationships, or...the evolution of love, or just, basically, what love has become in our society." What am I talking about? It is hard to get out of your own head, especially, I think, for literature students. We spend most of our time with our heads in a book or with our heads in a paper, and don't do enough talking. I see the engineering students and business students working together all of the time on their work, and I think, "gee, that would be kind of nice," but then I realize that if I was not alone while doing my work, I'd get nothing done. Ong talked about this, how writing promotes isolation. It's true. I really like what Ong has to say, most of the time. His ideas are so fascinating, they make me think...I like that.

Fun sites

2005-04-20T12:32:00.000-07:00

Here are some websites that I visit frequently:

www.snocountry.com
www.nytimes.com
www.npr.com
www.astrologyforlife.com
www.candletech.com
www.freetranslation.com-- this one is very helpful for my Spanish class.
www.bartleby.com-- this one is helpful for finding books
www.sierratradingpost.com-- I buy a lot of Christmas gifts from these guys

Just a few that are worth checking out.

Representations

2005-04-20T12:23:00.000-07:00

The literate culture concentrates a lot on representations like symbols, langugage, writing, and so on. But, when you think about it, everything is a representation. That is why being an English major is so interesting, because we study these representations and discover what is behind them, what constitutes them, and why they represent what they do. For example, I, me, myself am (in a sense) a representation. My identity represents a multiplex of categories: woman, student, runner, pet-owner, single, daughter, sister, consumer, etc...the list goes on. If a culture doesn't represent anything, then there is nothing to be studied. If there is nothing to be studied or investigated, then there is nothing to be known, and thus no knowledge. So to characterize something isn't necessarily labeling it, it's just placing it in a known category so it can be investigated further. So in a sense, categorizing something means to create a platform for to study it further; in other words, to analyze it.

2005-04-18T10:56:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we have another oral memory presentation. The assignment was to memorize a list of 50 items and recite them in front of the class. A couple of weeks ago, I came up with the idea of memorizing 50 different kinds of wildflowers. Then I thought I would memorize them by state. I imagined I was going on a road trip through 5 states, including Montana. Along the way, I notice 10 different kinds of wildflowers that are native to the state. I thought that maybe, somehow, a geographical element might assist me in my memorization.

I did a memory palace, just like I did for the bookmark presentations. But this time, I found it much harder! I don't know if its because these flowers have (somewhat) complicated names, or if it's because I'm using a similar memory palace: my house. I've got 30 down so far, but it took me longer to memorize them. There is a lamp in my house that I've designated for the Smoke Tree flower of Idaho, but as I was designating it, I found myself saying, "Wait--that's Don Quixote!" So I'll continue to search my house for new loci, trying to find new assignments for my household items.

More Memorizing

2005-04-18T10:37:00.000-07:00

Expand

2005-04-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

I wanted to expand on the "movement" blog I published the other day. I was talking about how language was the vehicle of thought. But then I got to thinking; what then, is the vehicle of language? I think that language is motivated by several forces. Within the individual, there are unconscious and conscious desires that cause a need for language. We need things, both tangible and intangible, that we can most easily obtain with some sort of language. For example, I spent a couple of weeks in Baja, Mexico over the 2003 winter break. My Spanish was very limited, and I was in a place where very few people spoke English. Each day I needed something different, whether it be food, a bathroom, or just conversation. To obtain what I needed, I had to learn and utilize the language. Learning the language helped me to understand (a little) more of what the culture was like; it helped me to think in terms of the Other, which in this case, was a Mexican. So if language is the vehicle of thought, then desire is the vehicle of language. What is the vehicle of desire? That is going a little too far for my knowledge, and too abstract.
Here is a link to one of the surf camps I stayed at: www.pescaderosurf.com

Paper

2005-04-14T10:01:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to decide on a paper topic for our final paper in this class. I'm thinking of doing something with Ong's notion of writing as restructuring consciousness and tying that to the lineality (is that a word?) of plot, like in the detective story. In my English 300 class, I did a presentation on psychoanalytic criticism and used Edgar Allen Poe's The Purloined Letter to emphasize some of my points. I think this would be an excellent tool to outline a paper. Maybe I'll go further with this.

Movement

2005-04-13T19:22:00.000-07:00

The more I think about it, the more I realize that language is the vehicle of thought. I think it was Yates (?) that mentioned this. It reminded me of Ramon Lull's memory wheel in that movement was essential for "completeness" in memory. Because truth/meaning is not stable, not static, the process of thinking is just that: a process. I think it was Julia Kristeva who mentions that interpretation is a process of making and constructing meaning. That, although it would be convenient, there is no final explanation to things, no fixed and final definitons. Everything we define is subject to change at one time or another. Movement is essential to thought; just to identify this aspect produces progress in thinking. Oral stories are constantly changing, moving in new directions. If storytellers didn't move or experiment with the content, society would not advance; it would remain stuck and thus unfulfilling.

Language

2005-04-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

According to Claude Levi-Strauss, structural linguistics teach that all values have meaning only by their relation to other values. I agree with this, to an extent. We, as a society, like to think that our language is univocal, that there is meaning inherent in language itself. But language is always already influenced by several things at once. So I would argue that our language is polyphonic, that is it is made up through various influences but places various values on particular elements in particular contexts. When language is given a univocal, or monologic voice, this tends to silence the language of other influences which can, in turn, put a hault on any sort of insight and thinking.
In the oral tradition, language is polyphonic. With language being the primary source for communication, oral cultures tend to combine all sorts of influence in order to portray their message whether it be in stories, day-to-day tasks, or survival methods. So I would argue that there is more (to use a Levi-Strauss term) freeplay for thought within oral cultures because there are less political implications in the language that is used. And with more freeplay, there is more room and movement for insight, more potential for the development of the mind.

Dreams

2005-04-12T14:43:00.000-07:00

The Dreams section of the Kane book was also presented in class today. This group re-enacted the myth told in the beginning of their chapter, and did it exceptionally well; I was very impressed. The earth's dream was to flourish, to develop into a beautiful kaleidoscope of being. I noticed particularly the elements within this realm of being as music, courage, sea, and spirit, in other words, the powers that make up the earth. This dream came true, and can be passed on to other areas of life, like those beings that exist upon earth and that live within and by these powers.

Group Presentations

2005-04-12T14:29:00.000-07:00

Today in class three groups presented their chapter from the Kane book, The Wisdom of the Mythtellers. MAPS went first with their explanation of oral mapping and its relationship to mythtelling. I took a Native American Studies course a few semesters back and this chapter reminds me a lot of the Native American storytelling method. Stories sit in places, and vice versa. This is essential to the oral tradition, for many stories arise, or are born, from events that took place in a certain location. Heather drew the parallel between oral mapping and Camillo's memory theatre in that Camillo referenced classical myths and the zodiac in order to provoke knowledge. The physical act of walking through this theatre would instigate one's mind to remember things. Jeremiah demonstrated an actual oral map that he created, ultimately leading to a hidden treasure: a bottle of wine.
The group I was part of, BOUNDARIES, went next. We re-enacted the myth told in the beginning of the chapter, and added some of our own elements of humor. During our post-question-session, Wayne asked about the section of the chapter titled, Polyphony. It is the concept, like in music, where several melodies come together at one time to make one song. This concept is hard for a literate culture to grasp because literate cultures tend to be univocal, that is to say to think of things separately, in separate terms. Members of an oral culture can take many things in at one time and construct a coherent meaning which, in my opinion, makes for a more well-balanced understanding of the world.

Soul Mate

2005-03-30T10:36:00.000-08:00

We received an assignment to write an epic poem about a partner we were paired up with in class. I'm not a poet, but I guess I'll figure something out. I interviewed my soul mate, Zac, and came up with the following information. Zac was born in Abingdon, VA in 1976. Soon after, his parents decided to move the family to Montana, which Zac has no recollection of. His favorite foods are pizza and shrimp. His hobbies are motorcycle maintenance, kayaking, and canoeing. He is 28 and has blue eyes. He owns four kayaks; they are purple, white, orange, and red. His major achievements include traveling to several places, like Guatemala and Honduras. He has met a lot of cool people along his travels, including a man that runs a turtle recovery center in Honduras. Zac's brother Matt teaches 6th graders in the Dominican Republic.

To form my poem, I expanded on the gaps in his information, like how (exactly) he arrived to Montana from Virginia. Also on his relationships with the people he met on his travels. I liked the fact that his younger brother is a teacher in the Dominican Republic as well.

I set up a Power-Point presentation to memorize my poem. The actual poem ended up sounding more like a children's story than anything else, but at least I could remember it this way. I included repetition at the end of each slide, which aided me in remembering where to end. Zac's epithet followed the model of his life, for example it started with Zac the blue-eyed baby to Zac the little boy to Zac the teenager, Zac the 28 year old and finally, Zac the student. Throughout the poem Zac was also a traveler, a turtle saver, a lonely islander, and a canoe-fixer. Unfortunately, during my presentation, I became extrememely nervous and had to refer to my notes and I forgot a whole section about Zac the canoe-fixer. Oh well, I guess he'll be remembered by other things.

Fiction

2005-03-28T12:01:00.000-08:00

Fiction creates fictional conventions to present to the world, creating another, sort of fantasy world. Except, within this fantasy world are realistic portrayals of thinking, feeling characters. So a novelist will develop a situation from his/her learned experiences and present them through characters, settings, and events that may or may not have actually happened, and present it to their reader as ficiton, or non-truth. The reader may or may not relate to such fiction. For the sake of writing, lets say they relate to a character in a book. How can this happen? They relate through experiences and shared emotions. The key word here is relate. It is a creative relationship, that between the reader and writer, or rather, what the writer writes. The text provides things like meanings, plots, and characters while the reader brings experiences, emotion, and perception. It is in the intersection in this relationship where creative/imaginative production happens. This is the joy of reading fiction, that the text and reader can produce a meaningful image. This, I think, is part of what Salman Rushdie was speaking about. This is the Power of the Novelist or Artist: the ability to present a better reality.

Salman Rushdie

2005-03-11T12:27:00.000-08:00

I've never read any of Salman Rushdie's books, but now I plan to. I was particularly fascinated with his talent to imitate what he was describing, as he was describing it, like the juggling analogy. Oral storytellers must keep their audience listening and interested in the speaker, so they learn to have many stories going at once, leaving the audience with the sense that none of these stories have any connection. When they tie all of these stories together; this peaks the audience's interest and encourages them to listen on. Mr. Rushdie, as he was speaking about this, was also doing this. I didn't realize this until later on, very clever.
Here is a helpful link to some articles on Rushdie: www.subir.com/rushdie.html

Phoneme

2005-02-17T11:50:00.000-08:00

I googled Triste Tropiques and found an interesting essay on Claude Lévi-Strauss written by Robert Clark. It talked about Strauss's interest in Roman Jakobson's study of the phoneme. The essay concentrates on the different rules/aspects that make up a family among different societies. Because the concept of a family is something that all societies share, this would be an interesting study, to see what the basic rules are to call a family a family. The passage that stuck out to me was one that said "structural linguistics taught that all values have meaning only by their relation to other values" (my emphasis). This immediately made me think of Kane, and his stress on the importance of relationships in oral cultures. Relationships among natural things, like the Red-headed Sapsucker and a dying spruce tree; "there are patterns everywhere" (Kane, 40). The relationships that exist in things, like nature and language, are part of a bigger system that all work together to constitute one gigantic, coherent whole. So, going back to Strauss, the relationships among people are the governing rules that make a whole family. What these governing rules are depends on what society one is part of.
Going off on a limb, this idea/concept made me think also of William Blake, "without contraries, there is no progression." Robert Clark, in his essay, explains that in linguistics, the meaning of words is brought about through the meanings of other, related words. This idea is what gives value to words and to language. All these men are thinking along the same lines, and I think I'm beginning to understand what they are saying.
Here is a link to that essay for further investigation: www.LitEncyc.com

Flyting

2005-02-15T12:09:00.000-08:00

Flyting- The exchange of terms of abuse among two people.

My sister and I did a lot of flyting when we were younger. One incident in particular that I remember took place in the grocery store. I was just learning how to read, so everything I saw I was reading out loud (stop signs, street signs, etc.). As my mother, sister, and I were walking into the store, I read a sale sign out loud that said, "Brats on Sale" and I read it incorrectly and my sister said, "that's right, Cara, we've finally decided to sell you" and I believed her for a moment.

Bibliography of Recommended Readings

2005-02-15T11:58:00.000-08:00

McKlewen's Wake
Understanding Media by Marshall McKluhan
The Gutenberg Galaxy - Marshall McKluhan
The Book of Memory - A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture - Mary Carruthers
Bruce Chapwin Songlines
History as an Art of Memory - Patrick Hutton
The Canon as a Memory System - Harold Bloom

Ong on page 39

2005-02-14T10:14:00.000-08:00

Ong talks about oral thought being "redundant or copious." I agree with this, but it also got me thinking about redundant and/or copious education. For example, all of my English classes seem to coincide, in one way or another. Things that we extract from literature ties into theories and discussions in other classes. When Ong talks about oral redundancy as being a tool for primary orality, I both disagree and agree. I disagree because the more I hear certain things/ideas/facts being repeated by students, the less credibility they seem to hold. But the more that my professors repeat things, the more likely I am to take them as fact, as solid information. I guess it depends on the credibility of the speaker. Or, when I hear myself or my classmates simply repeating what they hear, it loses its credibility because it is simply an imitation of what we heard rather than something that was created through other thoughts.

Think Memorable Thoughts

2005-02-10T11:58:00.000-08:00

I just finished a book for my 372 class called "The Summer Before the Dark" by Doris Lessing. In it, the main character talked about memories that she remembered. She discovered that the memories she stored were all good, peaceful, and fun. Anything negative or painful was wiped away. I found this very interesting; I did not think this was possible.

What makes a thought memorable? I guess it would have to be related to a feeling that affects the way that you think. For example, if I think of a way to organize a thesis for a major paper that is due, I will remember this thought because it will trigger the imaginative sect of my mind, giving me feelings of relief and satisfaction. As far as how long this thought will last, well that depends on how profound it is. Suppose I think of this thesis while walking outside. If I rush home, jot it down, and work with it for awhile, it (this thought) will transform into a more developed thought, and thus become a different thought overall. So, thoughts do not last long in their original form. But they last forever, in a way, through the thoughts that they "give birth" (for lack of a better term) to.

Palaces

2005-02-08T11:50:00.000-08:00

We were discussing memory palaces last class. I was trying to imagine my childhood home, and I did, but there are lots more places for memories in the place I live in now. On page 34 in Ong, he states, "your thought must come into being in heavily rhythmic, balanced patterns, in repetitions or antitheses, in alliterations and assonances, in epithetic and other formulary expressions, in standard thematic settings" (my emphases). This way of memorization, using mnemonics, themes, and "formulary expressions," requires a thorough knowledge of some kind of memory palace. My memory of my childhood home is fuzzy, having memories nested within memories is more likely to happen within my current "palace." I can see things better here; it is the place that I run, care for, and function within. Using my current place of residence will enable me to create memories in every nook and cranny; every drawer, decorative box, and desk can be a place to store associations with the MSU top 100 book list.

Books

2005-02-03T13:01:00.000-08:00

The first thing I want to say about Tuesday's class is, BRAVO JUSTIN! That was impressive; I know now that I have a lot of work to do. I think that the slide show of book covers helped, although I think I'm going to need to perform a lot more "exercises" before I can recite all 100 books, in consecutive order. Yates says that "one can sometimes help oneself by simple adaptations of some of the mnemonic usages. One may use privately invented marks to remind one of difficult passages." I want to believe this, but I'm afraid I need to know more about how, exactly, this works. I guess I'll read on...

MeMoRy

2005-01-31T11:57:00.000-08:00

Things that stuck out from last class period...

Why is a museum called a museum? Because it holds things that are inspired by muses. The muses are Calliope, Thalia, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichere, and Urania. Their mother is Mnemosyne.

The oral world doesn't tend to analyze things as much as the literate world does. Remember that the root word of analyze is anal. I would like to know what the limit is for analysis. When is the point of overanalyzation?

The Catholic church is a memory palace. When you walk in, you are instantly given visual images that trigger memories or, engrained information.

Anamnesis is recollection. This is a Platonic term that focuses on writing as a technology. The idea is that we, as human beings, know everything there is to know before we are born. We were spiritual angels who "fell" into imperfection and are constantly seeking that perfection in the lives that we live.

Growing up and living in a literate culture has given me some presuppositions. I take several day-to-day operations for granted. For instance, going to the grocery store. I would not be able to read any product I was looking for. I could probably obtain the items by looking at the picture on the box, but what about paying for them? If I didn't know how to read, I wouldn't be able to count money. I'm a bad typer today, more on this later...

Here is an interesting link I found on memory stuff: www.exploratorium.edu

Change

2005-01-27T09:50:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, we were going over passages in Ong that stuck out to us. The orality and literacy debate arouses several issues in literary criticism. I GOOGLED "orality and literacy" and came up with an essay written by Alan Durant. In it, he talks about the argument over the assumption that the distinction between orality and literacy determines individual modes of thought and directions of social change. The directions of social change is the part that caught my eye.
I guess I've never really thought too much about these issues, it is one of those topics that, once you read or talk about it, makes sense and is worthy of research. Durant writes about the different privileges associated with speech and those with literacy. According to the essay, oral societies are closer to thoughts and images because these are their tools of communication. Literacy, on the other hand, creates new levels of abstraction for the individual; I thought of the ability to think critically. Durant says that "literacy is taken to encourage skepticism...and is therefore thought to encourage social change." Literacy creates a rational language and causes people to question society. This issue would be interesting to investigate further. If anyone is interested in a copy of this essay, go to http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/hopkins_guide_to_literary_theory/

Links to classmates

2005-01-26T11:55:00.000-08:00

www.jst-oraltraditions.blogspot.com
www.saffiatu.blogspot.com Kristi
www.ideasandramblings.blog.com
http://oraltraditions.blogspot.com
http://spaditions.blogspot.com
http://buttersickle-la-la.blogspot.com
http://oraltraditionsdeb.blogspot.com
http://oraltraditionsengl337.blogspot.com
http://julietno.blogspot.com
http://stephurban.blogspot.com
http://www.adamlamb.com/webPages/oral%20Traditions%201/Feats%20of%20Memory
www.thefirebird2005.blogspot.com
www.livejournal.com/users/wesleyfriske/
http://rememory.blogspot.com
http://oraltradsophie.blogspot.com
www.wayne.blog-city.com
http://galacticgerbil.blogspot.com
http://oraltraditionsnotes.blogspot.com
www.originaldrivel.blogspot.com
http://guywiththecowboyhat.blogspot.com Jeremiah Beasley

Childhood Orality

2005-01-24T13:18:00.000-08:00

As a child, my brain worked differently; it functioned based on different mechanics. Like Derrida suggested, stories and myths that I lived by existed because I did not know how to write. For example, I had an imaginary friend when I was a child. His name was Baber. Baber and I would build forts, cook imaginary food, and go sledding. Baber existed because my imagination allowed him to. Baber was created through my imagination. But the things we did "together" were not made up, they were imitations of real experiences. When we cooked imaginary food, I was imitating my mom or dad. The food that was prepared was imagined, but it was food that was in my experience. So, my world before I could write was a combination of imagination and experience. It was imitation and creation, Baber was created by my imagination. I had never actually seen him before, but I knew what he looked like.