Barbelith Underground > Head Shop > Memory, skills and related issues (Non-debate thread, containing the concept and "rules" of the NDT)

It applies to choreographed dance, too. The last time I was in a show... hope this doesn't turn into too long of a story... I was one of the schoolgirls, which meant few lines and five dances. Which we had to learn in practically two days, since the original choreographer dropped out halfway through and the new Nazi choreographer wasn't getting paid enough to spend any more time with us. So you were having to learn so fast, you were aware that you were actively shoving what you were learning down to that subconscious level and really skipping over any part where you were conscious of what you were doing. And that was the only prayer you had to look like you knew what the hell you were doing when you got on stage. And then one of the other non... fricking... dancing actors appoints himself as some sort of sub-director, and suddenly tells you one... week... before... the show that your ball change needs to happen on the upbeat. I didn't even know it was called a ball change, that where I was. And the whole goddamned dance just fell to pieces.

There was an good article in the NYer around this time, too. It may have been by Malcolm Gladwell, it was that sort of article. But it was an analysis of "choking" (overthinking during crisis) vs. "panicking" (shutting off thinking during crisis), about the latter there was a horrible story about a group of paratroopers on a training flight. There weren't enough right-handed parachutes to go around, so the last paratrooper was given a left-handed parachute and reminded that his pull cord was on the left side, not the right. Guy understands, jumps out of the plane and plummets. When they find him on the ground, the fabric on his jumping outfit is shredded on the right side down to his flesh.

But actually the reason I got up to post this morning was to say something about Lord Peter Wimsey... a while ago, plums started a thread about why Barbelith is a haven of Dorothy L. Sayers freaks. And it is a question, because the more you read the Wimsey books the more you realize how problematic they are. But for me, they're *really* hard to analyze --partly because they make me inordinately happy and I'm not sure why; and I'm not sure that I want to know why, because I *like* being that happy.

Here's the thing, though. Theory: I was shaky on those dances because I had *no* episodic awareness --to say nothing of memory-- of them at any time. So when left brain was called on to look at the ball change on the upbeat, left brain had no idea. It's deliberate frivolity when Peter Wimsey says that he's a child of Nature, this is a man who has a walking stick with ruler markings. He certainly does have an empirical mind... but he also has another mind, more whimsical and very open to inspiration. That's his deadly combination. He's really... complete. (I think this is also true re: his performance of gender, btw. Also Harriet Vane's.)

Last thing: I think that one of the ironic effects of capital is that people have been cut off from episodic experiences, basically as a result of division of labor... but this I will have to work out a bit more...