Monday, November 29, 2004

something on Taxonomy

On the topic of boredom and the classification of literature and genres, I found this to be an interesting way of looking at what we're discussing...a more systematic and scientific approach, the idea of taxonomy (of life, and of literature)...

(dictionary reference)

Taxonomy of Life

The taxonomic organization of species is hierarchical. Each species belongs to a genus, each genus belongs to a family, and so on through order, class, phylum, and kingdom. Associations within the hierarchy reflect evolutionary relationships, which are deduced typically from morphological and physiological similarities between species. So, for example, species in the same genus are more closely related and more alike than species that are in different genera within the same family.

Modern taxonomy recognizes five kingdoms, into which the estimated five million species of the world are divided. This table presents a familiar organism from each kingdom and the names of the taxonomic groups to which it belongs.

(like in literature, poetry, other forms of art, and so on...)

Notes toward a Taxonomy of Literature, by Bob Grumman

"While on the internet I've been exposed to a good number of highly intelligent literary discussions. But they've also been full of confused thinking, generally because of what I consider to be their participants' taxonomical ignorance and/or indifference. This has annoyed me, finally, into the following Laying-Down of the Law Concerning the Classification of Literary Works.I begin with Verbal Expression. At the simplest level, there are two kinds: Oral Verbal Expression, or Speech, and Written Verbal Expression, or Writing. I divide the former into Declamation and Stagework, depending on the degree of physical action involved in its presentation. Declamation is that which, for practical purposes, is all speech; stagework that whose effect is seriously reduced if not acted out. Generally, declamation is performed by a single voice, stagework by more than one, but neither is an absolute requirement. As far as I can tell, there is no need for any parallel division of writing."

He goes on to discuss the various categories of classification of literature, see link below. I thought this was interesting because we can compare literary genres, as well as scientific genres and subjects, as well as (and the list goes on) - we naturally classify things, it is human instinct, a part of our intellegence. If you continue on to see his classifications, it is surprising how many he includes and interesting to visually see, the divisions which separate them.

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/1492/lit-tax.html

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