Oral History

Morning, Glories! I missed the whole morning thread. Slowly plowing through the book comments now.

Bandersnatch: I believe that some of you are missing the true import of Roots. Boobies on network television! (Hey, if you were the right age when it came out that was important).

Hm. I must've been too old by then to remain impressed by that part...! (Checks iMDB) Roots (tv) was in 1977? I thought it was much earlier. If that's right, I was not only well past my boob-seeking adolescence and already living with Milady Webworker by then.

The big takeaway I remember from the Roots show was the oral history of the African village, still recalling Haley's ancestor's kidnapping, generations later when Haley went there.

All BS, I must now suppose, but I remain impressed with the pre-literate practice of preserving history with oral tradition, stories and songs, with very little change over long generations. Fake but accurate for realz?