SOCIOLOGY OF RHETORIC

"Thus, as in most cases, art originates from experience" (Yates 22).

After completing Foer's entertaining narrative of his own experience with memory training, it is interesting to read the more academic oriented Art of Memory. I just finished the first chapter, in which Yates introduces the classical foundations of the art. Both authors describe the importance of the Rhetorica Ad Herennium, the oldest surviving Latin book on Rhetoric. The author considers memory to be an essential part of the effective orator's arsenal, "Now let us turn to the treasure-house of inventions, the custodian of all parts of rhetoric, memory" (Yates 5).

At the time of its publication, oratory was viewed by many as a powerful political tool that should be kept in the possession of the Greek-speaking upper classes. By publishing the text in Latin, the unknown author contributed to what could be considered a liberal-populist movement. After doing some research in Google scholar, I ran into an interesting piece by Patrick Sinclair of Northwestern University, in which he explores the ways in which the text serves as an "opportunity for self-invention for the would-be statesman"(561). He asserts that if a lower-class citizen could emulate the language of his superiors, then he would be on his way to overcoming social disadvantage and adopting the views traditionally canonical to them. According to Sinclair's analysis, the main interest of the author was in judicial oratory, where "a well-born and well-connected Roman could win the sort of distinction and form the sort of social alliances necessary for realizing his social and political ambitions"(563).

Roman orators could "best others by cleverly manipulating general, shared concepts"(568), similar to the way modern mental athletes win championships by designing new memory systems. It appears as though in classical Roman society, a strong memory was an essential tool to gaining political and social prestige. Unfortunately for Foer, this is not the case in today's society. In a world where we can easily lean on external memory crutches, one gains little recognition for winning memory championships. However, Foer is able to realize that

"memory training is not just for the sake of performing party tricks; it's about nurturing something       profoundly and essentially human" (270).

We have outrun our own programming with the advances of modern technology. Our brains are hardwired to support powerful recollection systems based off of spatial data, which is why the memory palace is such an effective tool for storing large amounts of information. The hardware is present, all one needs to do is install the software to run it. There is no longer the motivation of advancement to sustain our memory training, "But in the ancient world, devoid of printing, without paper for note-taking or on which to type lectures, the trained memory was of vital importance" (Yates 4). What if this trend advances to the point that we rely solely on external memory storage, and that spider-web breaks down?


Sincalir, Patrick. The Sententia in Rhetorica ad Herennium: A Study in the Sociology of Rhetoric. The American Journal of Philogy, Vol. 114. p. 561-580. 1993.