Repurposing Outline / Ideas

This is how I write ideas. It's messy; I know. But here you have it... a paper in process. I have to rearrange my current content to fit this basic outline.

The idea of remixing the works of another is incredibly present on the internet. People are constantly remixing content they did not originate. (youtube examples, memes with photo stills from movies, etc).

The idea is not foreign to folklorists either. Folklore is creative traditions, beliefs, art, and stories that are shared person-to-person by the people. It’s difficult (if not impossible) to find the originator of content. But there are all kinds of people who pass it on and many of them remix it in their own style - adding details or just keeping the main theme and recreating a whole new story. (Eleanor Long’s storyteller types).

Folklore is not just remixed as it is passed on in the traditional sense. Artists, authors, playwrights and other creative geniuses borrow folklore and remix it in their work as well. Use examples of authors and artist who have done this. Possibly the world’s most famous author did this constantly - Shakespeare! (specifically use proverb from LLL play example but show other - borrowing stories from folklore origins, etc).

So why is the folkloric community ignoring the presence of folklore on the internet? People are remixing old stories and even old forms of folklore and sharing them with their online audience. Only a small number of folklorists have followed folklore to the internet - most are studying traditional folklore. Such a rich treasury of culture that is being ignored.

"Folklore theory holds that folkloric expression is reflective and serves as a 'mirror' of societal and cultural values; folklorists should therefore use this mirror to analyze society and culture. This ought to encourage a scholarly examination of the Internet, due to this format's status as a major agent of communication. Still, folklorists of the late twentieth century have not budged." (Blank, 4).

This folklore has the capability of keeping the discipline of folklore alive and also enabling us to understand our culture better. the unique lense of the folklore discipline is important in understanding what is happening culturally online.

Talk about how folklore online both preserves and challenges the “continuity of traditions”

also, include that these are emerging traditions and forms of folklore... amazingly creative as they preserve culture and relational ties. The description of the conference's theme states: "One of our field’s key concepts, tradition involves both conservation and change; the creativity that exists within tradition and shapes change invites closer examination." I want to somehow talk about the importance of change and adaptation in tradition, this creativity aspect, especially in a world, the majority of which moves at a very fast pace.

Perhaps quote and mention Jorgensen's post and her dissertation subject/ defense experience:

Folkloristics is a discipline obsessed with tradition; we tend to use traditionality as the measure of whether we want to study something in the first place. If you can’t prove that something is traditional, even if it’s an emergent tradition or something that is traditional to a tiny group of people, then folklorists would question why we’d want to study it. Somehow related is the fact that a lot of folklorists tend to be luddites; this is very chicken-or-egg in my mind. Is someone drawn to the study of tradition since they want to live a more traditional/old-school lifestyle, or is someone who studies tradition going to be more and more into the idea of incorporating what they study into their lifestyle? I doubt it’s as simplistic as either A or B, but it’s a trend I’ve noticed.