Singer of Tales

There are few ethnographically based books on linguistic prosody-- this work is a major contribution thereunto.

What this book's primary offering consists of is its way of defining (epic) poetic construction as the learning experientially of prosodic-rhythmic-language paradigms, which are then applied to longer-work compostion, differing each per composition by the theme-and-variations-interplay.

This book has helped me with my own writing: by listening to oral performances in idioms that I like to hear(such as Dylan Thomas on CD; like Scourby's King James Bible cassettes; like the prosodic construction one hears on American streets-- the prosody of bus-stops, filling-stations, polling-booths, Wal-Mart-poetics, White-Castle-panhandlers'-whine, etc. etc.)-- and by rehearsing these rhythms in at-home speech (to the kitty-of-my-house, in-prayer, singing/chanting, repeating-standout-verbiage) I find that I am enabled to compose in idioms that (with rehearsal) I can truly OWN-- and then with these Pragnanzen I am then able the-better to cast ideas into a lively/living form.

Additionally, Lord's other work helps me to understand oral traditions of all types-- e.g. his work on the construction of the Gospel (NT) traditions as a verbal traditional construction-- helps me to fathom the ritualities (Eric Berne would have us know that 'spontaneity' is in general constructed of games [zero-sum and non-zero-sum, I trow], of pastimes, and rituals]; knowing rituality thence abets understanding of the 'form-critical' social construction beneath virtually every work of utterance. In other words, what one would get with simple-random linguistic construction (while not at all interesting) would be on the opposite end of structure-- and Lord's book gives important clues for unraveling the paradigms of prosodic-- and thus semiotic-- language utterance.

Read Roman Jakobson sometime before/during/after this book by Lord; in particular, the Jakobsonian notion that the 'first-message' of language consists of its poetics will convince the reader that here-- in Lord-- we have 'the keys to the kingdom' of understanding verbalization that is memorable-- because of its beauty-- and how those 'beauties' are constructed.

--Vernon Lynn Stephens, Culdee

Louisville, Kentucky, USA