Next readings (AFTER Spring Break)

Carson: “Off the Bus”

“Off the Bus” begins and ends with reminiscences, specifically of various kinds of transport Carson remembers (buses, motorbikes, and even dodgem cars). How does Carson describe the sound of these vehicles, and what sorts of analogies does he see between vehicles as a means of “going someplace” and of music as a means of “going someplace?

As in other chapters, Carson is interested in the sound and, especially, the multiple layers of meaning that words can carry. He explores the origin of various terms describing vehicles (“berlin,” “landau,” “surrey,” etc) but he also plays with place names and implies that such play can give place names a kind of magic. What sorts of “magical associations” does he describe for place names? What about magical associations for tune names (remind me to describe the “alternate myth” of the tune “The Floating Crowbar”)?

In this chapter Carson transcribes two wonderful stories he got from senior musicians: “scalloping the horse” from Fermanagh fiddler Mick Hoy, and Tyrone fiddler John Loughran’s story about “imaginary music”. What does Carson see as the connection between music, imagination, and poteen? Be prepared to describe.

Finally, the two pages 132-33 strike me as some of the book’s most evocative writing—this is writing which itself seeks to “cast a spell” and make the reader experience what it was like to be in Derrygonnelly in the late summer of 1983. Please read these two pages aloud, and visualize the scenes described as you read. It’s very powerful writing.

No materials from Readings Packet in this section

Glassie PTT: Ch. 2 “Silence, Speech, Story, Song”

This chapter, which Glassie puts early in his book but which we can now return to with enhanced insight, focuses upon communication, verbal art, and their responsibilities. Central ideas and terms you should understand include:

• Truth, “lies”, talk, chat, bids, pants, poems, “crack”, stories:
  
• What is the relationship of these “heightened” forms to the talk out of which they flow? What is the progression from one to another, and what kinds of situations make such progression possible?
• What “social work” do such art forms play?
• What “power” do stories convey?
• What aspects of social interaction or of social class do such art forms reveal?
• How do stories, and particularly the stories of names, connect to a region’s history? (Please note when, where, and what sorts of photographs Glassie includes)
  

Near the end of the chapter, Glassie describes the social situations in which verbal art arises; please make note of them. There is a particularly powerful and detailed description of a pub session in which Peter Flanagan shows his authority and virtuosity. Be prepared to comment specifically about how Mr Flanagan does this.