Props

From: Wade T. Smith (wade.t.smith@verizon.net)
Date: Fri 23 May 2003 - 13:18:14 GMT

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    On Thursday, May 22, 2003, at 04:53 PM, Joe wrote:

    > And where does this expectation reside? In the minds of those who are
    > familiar with the play and props, along with the rest of the memeplex.

    No, sorry, Joe. This expectation resides, just as well, in the placement of the broom on the stage, the type of broom that it is, the nature of the characters in the play, the amount and kind of light cast upon it, and perhaps a thousand other things.

    Not only in the minds of those familiar with the play and the physical objects, although there is no need for any of them to be familiar with the play itself- I just went to a performance of Springtime for Henry last night, and there was a gramophone and a roulette wheel and a typewriter, among other properties and set pieces, and I knew nothing whatsoever about the play, but, I then knew that each of these properties would be used, probably for their expected purpose, but, perhaps not. In the case of the roulette wheel, it was only thrown out a window. Not exactly what one is expected to do with a roulette wheel, is it?

    But, if you will allow the word 'memeplex' to be the venue, then we have a start at conciliation of the memeinthemind and the performance model, because all the performance model has to do is replace 'meme' with 'memory' in the memeinthemind model, and for the memeinthemind model to expand 'memeplex' to include the time and place of performance, because, both a stage and a baseball field are very special examples of venue, and the facts of their physical properties are crucial to the continuation of the expected performance, and these properties are not to be denied or ignored. Expanding 'memeplex' to include these physical properties would avoid this usual denial which I see so often from the explanations of cultural processes from the memeinthemind model.

    - Wade

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