Oral History
I don't think you can fully rely on "oral" history. I remember playing the game Telephone in elementary school. We'd get in a circle and a person would whisper something like "I love pie" to the person to his left. That person was supposed to whisper to the guy on his left that he liked pie too, but by the time the message got back to that first person, the message was something like "Olive in the rye" or some crazy thing that sounds similar but is way off track. It's funny for a school game, but when it comes to preserving history, perhaps not so much. Fights can get started over one word getting misinterpreted between foreign language interpreters. Maybe some guy in history who is known to be a hero today was really a d-bag that got glorified for whatever reason. Maybe he paid someone to say nice things about him. Of course, some oral histories were written down at the time that something was said, but people do mishear (is that a word?), misspeak, and write "typos."
So, oral history isn't reliable, but we wouldn't have the knowledge we do today if it weren't for our ancestors passing down from word-of-mouth how to plow the field, or great-great-great-great-great-great grandpa Joe's heroic fight against the redcoats and stuff like that. People say that we can learn from our mistakes, but I prefer the saying "history repeats itself." I'm not a hippie or anything, but if we learn from our mistakes, why are there still wars, why do people still smoke cigarettes when we know about lung cancer, why do people feed their kids fast food everyday when they know about childhood diabetes and bullies at school? On and on this "why" could go on. History tries to teach, but we refuse to learn.
Chapter 3
I'm taking a journalism class this semester and a required element in every one of our writing assignments is to have a quote from an actual person you interviewed over phone, email, or in-person. In fact, the most recent assignment we had was to do a profile on someone. The professor assured us that we didn't have to seek out someone with a dazzling history, we obviously didn't have time to get an interview with Barack Obama or Johnny Depp. But he told us that we'd be surprised at the trove of interesting tidbits a person has in their life, if you just sit down and listen to them, they'll give you their treasure. It's definitely not easy to interview a person, you have to make them feel comfortable, you have to create an illusion that all it is is a friendly conversation, even though in the back of your mind you're listening out for a good quick quote or some juicy dirt to write up later and publish to the masses. You have to be a snake charmer, a hypnotist, a siren singing a liquid, sweet song, lull them with your lullaby of friendship and understanding and you can get to the dark, creamy center. My professor says that everyone has an epic story, and I agree, because that's what life is. It's frickin' epic, man. If for no other reason, live to tell your tale.....Okay, maybe I am a hippie
I don't think you can fully rely on "oral" history. I remember playing the game Telephone in elementary school. We'd get in a circle and a person would whisper something like "I love pie" to the person to his left. That person was supposed to whisper to the guy on his left that he liked pie too, but by the time the message got back to that first person, the message was something like "Olive in the rye" or some crazy thing that sounds similar but is way off track. It's funny for a school game, but when it comes to preserving history, perhaps not so much. Fights can get started over one word getting misinterpreted between foreign language interpreters. Maybe some guy in history who is known to be a hero today was really a d-bag that got glorified for whatever reason. Maybe he paid someone to say nice things about him. Of course, some oral histories were written down at the time that something was said, but people do mishear (is that a word?), misspeak, and write "typos."
So, oral history isn't reliable, but we wouldn't have the knowledge we do today if it weren't for our ancestors passing down from word-of-mouth how to plow the field, or great-great-great-great-great-great grandpa Joe's heroic fight against the redcoats and stuff like that. People say that we can learn from our mistakes, but I prefer the saying "history repeats itself." I'm not a hippie or anything, but if we learn from our mistakes, why are there still wars, why do people still smoke cigarettes when we know about lung cancer, why do people feed their kids fast food everyday when they know about childhood diabetes and bullies at school? On and on this "why" could go on. History tries to teach, but we refuse to learn.
Chapter 3
I'm taking a journalism class this semester and a required element in every one of our writing assignments is to have a quote from an actual person you interviewed over phone, email, or in-person. In fact, the most recent assignment we had was to do a profile on someone. The professor assured us that we didn't have to seek out someone with a dazzling history, we obviously didn't have time to get an interview with Barack Obama or Johnny Depp. But he told us that we'd be surprised at the trove of interesting tidbits a person has in their life, if you just sit down and listen to them, they'll give you their treasure. It's definitely not easy to interview a person, you have to make them feel comfortable, you have to create an illusion that all it is is a friendly conversation, even though in the back of your mind you're listening out for a good quick quote or some juicy dirt to write up later and publish to the masses. You have to be a snake charmer, a hypnotist, a siren singing a liquid, sweet song, lull them with your lullaby of friendship and understanding and you can get to the dark, creamy center. My professor says that everyone has an epic story, and I agree, because that's what life is. It's frickin' epic, man. If for no other reason, live to tell your tale.....Okay, maybe I am a hippie
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