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14th Mar '13 12:38:56 PM ArcadesSabboth

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Once, before {{film}}, before printing, before even [[{{Literature}} writing]], all stories were spread by word of mouth alone. All the [[OlderThanDirt oldest stories]] have their roots in this ancient storytelling medium.

Oral storytelling has distinctive features, shaping the tropes it uses. Speech is not nearly as fast as reading, so an evening's worth of story is shorter. It is not possible to page back through an oral story to make sure it's internally consistent, and the story itself needs the kind of repetitive features that aid memorization. Even ''with'' memorization, stories usually change over long periods as the details of the original telling are altered by different storytellers, by innovation, to suit various audiences and circumstances, and by cultural and linguistic changes.

Nowadays, with our new-fangled "writing" and "movies," we tend to think of Oral Tradition as a medium of the past. But even in the most literate and technology-oriented cultures, stories, beliefs, ideas, and jokes continue to circulate orally as long as people continue talking to each other face-to-face or via telephone. Online social networking will have to become even more omnipresent before Oral Tradition really dies as a medium.

The genres most often associated with Oral Tradition are Sandbox/{{Myth}}, {{Legend}}, and Sandbox/{{Folklore}} (folktales, {{fairy tale}}s, folk ballads, folk songs, etc.), or just [[Sandbox/MythLegendAndFolklore Mythology]]. These genres are not just oral -- many mythological works have passed into or originated from other media such as writing and theatre. But these genres originated with oral storytelling, and are frequently referred to collectively as "oral tradition."

An oral work, once written down, is not Oral Tradition anymore. The oral versions can still wander around, and often do. But the written version is now {{Literature}}, and will change independently from the oral versions. This is an important distinction for this wiki, because the two media are subject to different types of adaptation, circulate by different channels, and often employ different tropes. It also comes up in the style of the wording, for example the repetition in oral works vs. the richer description, more detailed narration, and illustration that usually only shows up in writing. Once a work or adaptation is written, it's much easier for the author to look back over the whole work, removing contradictions and inconsistencies, before presenting it to an audience.

Because oral works are by definition not written down, it's almost impossible to trope them. The works troped on this wiki, even those that originated in Oral Tradition, are almost all versions in other media.

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3rd Feb '13 11:16:06 AM ArcadesSabboth

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1st Feb '13 10:18:34 AM ArcadesSabboth

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1st Feb '13 10:18:24 AM ArcadesSabboth

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1st Feb '13 10:18:12 AM ArcadesSabboth

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1st Feb '13 10:17:36 AM ArcadesSabboth

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1st Feb '13 10:04:51 AM ArcadesSabboth

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1st Feb '13 10:02:53 AM ArcadesSabboth

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1st Feb '13 10:00:19 AM ArcadesSabboth

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1st Feb '13 9:38:48 AM ArcadesSabboth

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Oral storytelling has distinctive features, shaping the tropes it uses. Speech is not nearly as fast as reading, so an evening's worth of story is shorter. It is not possible to page back through an oral story, and the story itself needs the kind of repetitive features that aid memorization. Even ''with'' memorization, stories often change over long periods as the details of the original telling are altered by different storytellers by innovation and to suit various audiences, circumstances, and cultural and linguistic changes.

Nowadays, with our new-fangled "writing" and "movies," we tend to think of Oral Tradition as a medium of the past. But even in the most literate and technologically-oriented cultures, stories, beliefs, ideas, and jokes continue to circulate orally as long as people continue talking to each other face-to-face or via telephone. Social networking will have to become even more omnipresent before Oral Tradition really dies as a medium.

The genres most often associated with Oral Tradition are [[Sandbox/MythLegendAndFolklore mythology]], {{legend}}, and {{folklore}} (folktales, {{fairy tale}}s, folk ballads, folk songs, etc.) These genres are not entirely oral -- many works in these genres have passed into or originated from other media such as writing and theatre. But these three genres originated with oral storytelling, and are frequently referred to collectively as "oral tradition."

An oral work, once written down, isn't entirely Oral Tradition anymore. It can still circulate orally, and often does. But the written version is now a work of Literature, and will move and change independently from the oral version. This is an important distinction for this wiki, because the two genres are subject to different types of adaptation, circulate by different channels, and sometimes even employ different tropes. It also comes up in the style of the wording, for example the repetition in oral works vs. the richer description, more detailed narration, and illustration that usually only shows up in written works. Once a work is written, or an adaption is composed in writing, it's much easier for the author to look back over the work as a whole, removing contradictions and inconsistencies, before presenting it to an audience.

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The genres most often associated with Oral Tradition are [[Sandbox/MythLegendAndFolklore myth]], {{legend}}, and {{folklore}} (folktales, {{fairy tale}}s, folk ballads, folk songs, etc.) These genres are not entirely oral -- many works in these genres have passed into or originated from other media such as writing and theatre. But these three genres originated with oral storytelling, and are frequently referred to collectively as "oral tradition."

An oral work, once written down, isn't entirely Oral Tradition anymore. It can still circulate orally, and often does. But the written version is now a work of {{Literature}}, and will move and change independently from the oral version. This is an important distinction for this wiki, because the two genres are subject to different types of adaptation, circulate by different channels, and sometimes even employ different tropes. It also comes up in the style of the wording, for example the repetition in oral works vs. the richer description, more detailed narration, and illustration that usually only shows up in written works. Once a work is written, or an adaption is composed in writing, it's much easier for the author to look back over the work as a whole, removing contradictions and inconsistencies, before presenting it to an audience.

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