The novel mind

Innovation in consciousness

Homer and the Homeric epic

‘Homer’ may mean ‘hostage’ or ‘blind’ Iliad and Odyssey circa 5,000 years ago

Blindness associated with prophecy and vision; e.g., Tiresius in Oedipus Rex.

Oracles, sphinxes, animal messengers, angels, demons, prophets, muses, shamans

The Jaynes Hypothesis

Julian Jaynes

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

Locus of perception evolves:Ancient

Interioceptive ‘vision’ or ‘voice’ is taken as ‘other’ -–special communication—in ancient paradigm

Locus of perception evolves:Classical

Inner space is established; other voices and ‘imagination’ included in self

Self-identification of mental states

Speech and language areas on left parietal lobe

Left-right hemispheres

Analogue areas to B and W on right side

Plasticity

Reprogramming of function ‘voice of god’ re-identified as memory,

imagination, hallucination, ‘conscience’

Speech and language recognition can be re-learned by right side of brain after stroke or injury of BW.

‘Understanding’ is distributed throughout brain

Ancient is to Modern as:

Epic is to Novel Exteriorization is to Interiorization Deistic is to Humanistic

The Iliad“For nine whole days he shot his arrows among the people, but upon the tenth day Achilles called them in assembly- moved thereto by Juno, who saw the Achaeans in their death-throes and had compassion upon them. Then, when they were got together, he rose and spoke among them.”

Exodus

17:4 : And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.

17:5 : And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.

Pyramus and Thisbe

Ovid, Metamorphoses, 16 BCE

Pyramus and Thisbe--he the handsomest youth, she the most beautiful of the women whom the Orient holds--lived in adjacent houses in the great city which Semiramis is said to have circled with walls faced in tile. Because they lived so close together, they met as soon as they were able to walk. Because their love increased with time, they would have been joined beneath the wedding torches--except that their fathers forbid it.

Their fathers couldn't forbid the love, however, which burned equally in the two captive minds. Though they had no open contact, they spoke by a nod and a gesture. As when a fire is banked, it burns the hotter.

Implications for the novel?

Homer 3,000 BCE Exodus 1,800 BCE

Moll Flanders 1650 CE

Pre-modern to Modern paradigm change supports greater use of interior motivation rather than external direction