Internet Memes and Their Significance for Myth Studies
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PALACKÝ UNIVERSITY, OLOMOUC FACULTY OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN STUDIES INTERNET MEMES AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE FOR MYTH STUDIES DOCTORAL DISSERTATION Author: Mgr. Pavel Gončarov Supervisor: Prof. PhDr. Marcel Arbeit, Dr. 2016 UNIVERZITA PALACKÉHO V OLOMOUCI FILOZOFICKÁ FAKULTA KATEDRA ANGLISTIKY A AMERIKANISTIKY INTERNETOVÉ MEMY A JEJICH VÝZNAM PRO VÝZKUM MYTOLOGIÍ DIZERTAČNÍ PRÁCE Autor práce: Mgr. Pavel Gončarov Vedoucí práce: Prof. PhDr. Marcel Arbeit, Dr. 2016 ANNOTATION Pavel Gončarov Department of English and American Studies, Faculty of Arts, Palacký University, Olomouc Title: Internet Memes and their Significance for Myth Studies Supervisor: Prof. PhDr. Marcel Arbeit, Dr. Language: English Character count: 347, 052 Number of appendices: 65 Entries in bibliography: 134 KEY WORDS myth, mythology, archaic revival, poetry, concrete poetry, semiotics, participatory media, digital culture, meme, memetics, internet memes, rage comics, Chinese rage comics, baozou manhua, baoman ABSTRACT This dissertation posits that the heart of myth rests with the novelizing and complexifying ritual of post-totemic sacrifice. As it makes an example of its delivery through poetry it tries to show the changing nature of poetry and art through history towards a designated act of whichever content. Transhumanism is seen as a tendency and so the dissertation imagines a poet whose practical exercise in the workings of typewriter produced concrete poetry are then tied to the coded ASCII table, emoticons and polychromatic glyphs which are subject to default visual modifications by manufacturers of technology. The dissertation then offers a view at memetic information transmission which is worked into a model that draws on Jacque Derrida’s différance. From a construction of a tree of hypothetical changes in the evolution of a state of culture of the primitive Waorani tribe, the dissertation moves to a logical exercise about hypernyms and hyponyms. The dissertation then points out examples of different discharges between complexifying layers of semiotic systems, and together with an analysis of the myth of centaur it offers a schematic model which should aid their diachronic memetic analysis. This is followed by a long-term comparative statistical study of 3,351 western and Chinese web comics—rage comics and 暴走漫画[:baozou manhua:] respectively—in order to draw attention to the workings of myth. The resulting interpretation is then compared with conclusions reached by some of the more notable mythologists. ANOTACE Pavel Gončarov Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky filozofické fakulty Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci Název: Internetové memy a jejich význam pro výzkum mytologií Vedoucí doktorské práce: Prof. PhDr. Marcel Arbeit, Dr. Jazyk: Angličtina Počet znaků: 347052 Počet příloh: 65 Počet zdrojů v bibliografii: 134 KLÍČOVÁ SLOVA mýtus, mytologie, návrat k archaismu, poezie, konkrétní poezie, sémiotika, participační média, digitální kultura, mem, memetika, internetové memy, rage comics, čínské rage comics, baozou manhua, baoman ABSTRAKT Tato dizertační práce tvrdí, že základ mýtu spočívá v novelizujícím se a komplexifikujícím se rituálu post-totemistické oběti. Její příklad spatřuje v poezii a snaží se ukázat, jak chápání poezie a umění směřovalo historií až k definovanému aktu snad jakéhokoli obsahu. S ohledem na výhledy transhumanismu prochází práce s myšleným básníkem od cvičení v konkrétní poezii za psacím strojem ke kódované ASCII tabulce, emotikonám a polychromatickým glyfům, které při zobrazování podléhají kódovým úpravám výrobců technologií. Práce dále představuje pohled na memetický přenos informace, což je zapracováno do modelu, který čerpá z différance Jacquesa Derridy. Od konstrukce stromu hypotetických změn ve vývoji stavu kultury primitivního kmene Waoraniů se práce přesouvá k logickému cvičení o hypernymech a hyponymech. Práce dále uvádí příklady vazbení mezi komplexifikujícími se vrstvami různých sémiotických systému a spolu s analýzou mýtu kentaura nabízí schematický model, který by měl pomoci při jejich diachronní memetické analýze. Následuje dlouhodobá statistická srovnávací studie 3351 západních a čínských webových komiksů – rage comics a 暴走漫画[:baozou manhua:], která má pomoci poukázat na fungování mýtu. Konečná interpretace je pak srovnána se závěry, kterých se dobrali povolaní mytologové. Prohlašuji, že jsem tuto dizertační práci vypracoval samostatně a uvedl v ní veškerou literaturu a ostatní zdroje, které jsem použil. V Olomouci, dne………………… ........................................................ Pavel Gončarov ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the Faculty of Arts and the whole Department of English and American Studies at Palacký University in Olomouc for their support; prof. Marcel Arbeit for his encouragement, remarks, contesting ideas, and proofreading; Bob Hýsek for reading through the first draft first and without hesitation; Jan Gončarov, David Pospíšil and Jan Kellner for reading through the first draft of Part 1 and their stimulating feedback; my parents and grandparents for immense mental and financial support; Agnieszka Cebula for talking me into doctoral studies; the Peoples’s Republic of China for their generous scholarship, prof. Luo Lianggong for supervising my year-long stay at Central China Normal University, Wuhan; prof. Zhu Weihong for her course in narratology; Ema Jelínková for taking me along on a research stay in the National Library of Scotland; and everybody else, who stayed close to me even though I would put them off by saying that I had to finish this. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 10 PART 1: HUNTERS AND GATHERERS CODING VISIONS .......................................................... 15 WHAT IS HUMAN? ......................................................................................................................... 15 TEARING THE REIGNS OF LANGUAGE WITH POETRY—BUT WHAT IS POETRY? ........ 23 WHAT IS THE TENDENCY? THE TENDENCY IS TRANSHUMANISM ................................. 34 PART 2: THE SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE OF POETRY ..................................................................... 38 PRACTICAL EXERCISE IN CONCRETE POETRY ..................................................................... 38 ASCII TABLE, EMOTICONS AND POLYCHROMATIC GLYPHS ............................................ 44 MISTAKES AND THEIR ACCUMULATED RESONANCE ........................................................ 54 LOGICAL EXERCISE ABOUT SPEECH ....................................................................................... 66 PART 3: CONTEMPORARY MYTHS AS SIGNS ............................................................................. 70 DISCHARGE BETWEEN LAYERS OF THE CHINESE SEMIOTIC SYSTEM .......................... 70 FROM ASCII TO PEDOBEAR ........................................................................................................ 73 FROM PEDOBEAR TO CENTAURS ............................................................................................. 79 PART 4: THE FOLKLORE OF TWO INTERNETS—A COMPARATIVE STUDY ........................ 93 RAGE COMICS AND BAOZOU MANHUA INTRODUCED ....................................................... 93 OVERUSED TITLES? .................................................................................................................... 103 THE INFLUENCE OF SOFTWARE ON TROPES OF NARRATION ........................................ 108 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................. 151 INTRODUCTION The title of this dissertation begs for the definition of a meme, of an internet meme, of myth, and of its studies. Let me start with a working definition of a meme. The term denotes a unit that transfers cultural information. It was coined by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene (1976), where he wrote that we need a name for the new replicator, a noun which conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. ‘Mimeme’ comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like ‘gene.’ I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme... It should be pronounced to rhyme with ‘cream.’ Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches.1 Memes can be read retrospectively on any layer of communication enacted by semiotic systems, but they should not be confused with linguistic signs. As an example, if a person learned by observation from another person how to cook a meal and flavor it with cane sugar, lemon juice, and chili, we can say that a meme was transferred between them. If he told the recipe to anyone else in his mother tongue, or if he wrote the recipe down in a foreign language, or if he drew it as a sequence, he would do it through sequencing signs on various layers of various semiotic systems—linguistic signs which constitute these systems would change notably in their signifiers but not much in their signifieds if the recipe was translated, let us say, from English to Chinese at a night-market in New York’s China town. If the cook ran short on his supplies and had to change his recipe, he could either use glucose syrup, citric acid, and pure capsaicin, or he could use stevia, vinegar and black pepper to make his meal taste sweet, sour and spicy. In the first option, the