virus: Renaissance home for non-verbal memes

Tracy Yucikas (tyucikas@cts.com)
Thu, 06 Aug 1998 23:40:33 -0700


Joe E. Dees wrote:
>What about the musical "hook" or melody (minus words) that plays itself
>incessantly in your head like a broken record (even when you may find it
>annoying)? It is bereft of any overt linguistic or abstract ideational
>significance; but is it not also a meme? I say it has identifiable
structure and >has been transmitted (replicated), therefore it qualifies,
whether or not it >carries meaning.

... and I, for one, tend to agree with this line of observation of the field
of non-verbal memes sometimes pleasantly epitomized by "unconcious melody",
sometimes by the "broken-record" fixation (though this metaphor is at risk
of losing its reference-basis in the world of CD's) ...

just guessing, but the cultural experiences of childhood HEAVILY influence
susceptibility to non-verbal (but auditory) memes.

Tracy Yucikas
Curator, "Renaissance home for non-verbal memes"