Remix: Pathways of the Mind

John Miles Foley has described his most recent project as “exploring the homology between oral tradition and Internet technology” (Foley:2011–:“Disclaimer”).¹ This concept, at once so simple and so complex, should lead to a re-evaluation of the teaching of oral traditions as well as the understanding of how oral traditions and the Internet “mime the way we think” (ibid.:“Home Page”).² It is the goal of this brief essay to show how The Pathways Project has already begun to affect scholarship,³ using as an example my own contribution to the project, the node titled “Mashups” (Grey 2011–).⁴

Before I discuss the project and related work, a few key ideas should first be introduced. Each entry in The Pathways Project is called a “node,” and within the site one node can be linked to any number of other nodes. One may think of these nodes as chapters, in that each one can stand alone and be read separately, but at the same time they are integral to and integrated within the whole. Throughout the project, the textual, oral, and electronic worlds are divided into three agoras, or “verbal marketplaces”⁵—the tAgora, oAgora, and eAgora, respectively—which allow Foley to group major ideas together and discuss them as conceptual units.⁶ One of the cleverest aspects of the project is how Foley makes complex ideas seem simple through the use of plain language and unadorned rhetoric while still incorporating specialized terminology that aids in driving home his overall points. Both the web and book versions of the project display this same tactic of form and function, but the website is the true heart of The Pathways Project and most fully presents Foley’s ideas.

Those familiar with oral traditions know that they are based in multiformity. An oral poet continuously has options, and the audience may know the final outcome but not the path(s) the poet will take to get there. This type of performance means that no two presentations of the poem will be alike; each time the poet performs, there will be variations, though always within limits.⁷ A poet can remix elements within the tradition at his will.

Remixing is thus central to oral traditions and to The Pathways Project. That information can be delivered and redelivered in varying ways, and that multiple routes can be taken to reach the same “end,” exemplifies the tenet that pathways mime the way we think. “Mashups” examines one aspect of remixing present in both the ancient and modern worlds. Though it is more commonly found within eAgora environments, remixing can be seen in at least one tAgora setting: the cento. Centos were written during the late Roman Empire and early medieval period, with the best-known practitioner of the form being Ausonius, a fourth-century poet and rhetorician whose Cento Nuptialis (“The Wedding Cento”) is based on Vergil’s Aeneid. Ausonius took half-lines and full lines of Vergil’s epic and reorganized them to create a new poem. A short example will demonstrate how this works:⁸

Exspectata dies aderat, dignisque hymenaeismatres atque viri, iuvenes ante ora parentumconveniunt stratoque super discumbitur ostro.

The wished-for day was present, and with worthy wedding hymnsmothers and husbands, and the young men before the faces of their parents, they gather together and recline at the table on top of the purple-dyed blanket.⁹

In the Latin passage, each bolded or italicized section represents a separate half-line or full line taken from Vergil. For example, the first bold half-line is from Aeneid 5.105; the second italicized half of that line is from Aeneid 11.355. The second line works much like the first,¹⁰ while the third line consists of an entire line taken intact from the Aeneid (1.700). This passage is representative of the entire Cento Nuptialis; Ausonius remixes his “samples” of Vergil to create a new poem out of an old one. While Ausonius is not strictly following an oral traditional approach toward composition, he nevertheless incorporates commonplace oAgora tactics in his tAgora work. But centos are unusual...