Today's pondering is on the Hokey Pokey. Blame Babylon 5. I've been watching the first season, after much raving from various friends, and so have now experienced Londo's comment about the Hokey Pokey:
"After two thousand years of art, literature, culture, and science...do you know the one song that nearly all humans sing to their children at some point or another? *sings* 'You put your right hand in, you put your right hand out, you put your whole self in and you turn yourself about. You do the hokey pokey, you give a little shout. That's what it's all about!' It does not mean anything! I have been studying it for seven days. I had the computer analyse it. I swear to you. It does not mean a thing!"
Apparently, there are two similar songs - one appearing in the UK, one in the US - both appearing at about the same time, both with contested origins. It's a song that sees a lot of reference in popular culture and I remember having to do the dance as a school activity when I was seven or eight years old.
And this to me would seem to be the point. It's important because... it's fun and energetic and slightly silly and, as Martin de Maat put it, "The Hokey Pokey. Think about it. At the end of the song, what do we learn? What is it all about?... You put your whole self in!"
But it's more than that. It underlines the validity of concepts put forward in discussions of historiography: that history is about interpretation and no historical text is an absolutely accurate record. And more, it reminds me of the appearance of more or less the same figures and tales in myth and legend world-wide. Like such tales, the Hokey Pokey appears at more or less the same time on opposite sides of the world and no one really knows where it came from.
Personally, I find the idea of the Hokey Pokey taking its place alongside triune goddesses, trickster figures, were-creatures and the little ash girl in something akin to the collective unconscious curiously appropriate. That the silly is as natural to us as the deeply meaningful, the light-hearted as integral as the serious. That we are naturally drawn to something that is, in the end, a bit of fun.
As an aside, I enjoyed this (nicked from Wikipedia), reminding me as it did of G.K. Chesterton's Variations on an Air in which he re-writes Old King Cole to parody the style of various poets: "In the Washington PostStyle Invitational readers were asked to "rewrite some banal instructions." Jeff Brechlin of Potomac Falls, Maryland wrote a version in sonnet form as if it was written by William Shakespeare:
And, while we're on the topic, another quote from Babylon 5 which seems curiously appropriate: "When we're about to do something stupid, we like to catalog the full extent of our stupidity, for future reference."
"After two thousand years of art, literature, culture, and science...do you know the one song that nearly all humans sing to their children at some point or another? *sings* 'You put your right hand in, you put your right hand out, you put your whole self in and you turn yourself about. You do the hokey pokey, you give a little shout. That's what it's all about!' It does not mean anything! I have been studying it for seven days. I had the computer analyse it. I swear to you. It does not mean a thing!"
Apparently, there are two similar songs - one appearing in the UK, one in the US - both appearing at about the same time, both with contested origins. It's a song that sees a lot of reference in popular culture and I remember having to do the dance as a school activity when I was seven or eight years old.
And this to me would seem to be the point. It's important because... it's fun and energetic and slightly silly and, as Martin de Maat put it, "The Hokey Pokey. Think about it. At the end of the song, what do we learn? What is it all about?... You put your whole self in!"
But it's more than that. It underlines the validity of concepts put forward in discussions of historiography: that history is about interpretation and no historical text is an absolutely accurate record. And more, it reminds me of the appearance of more or less the same figures and tales in myth and legend world-wide. Like such tales, the Hokey Pokey appears at more or less the same time on opposite sides of the world and no one really knows where it came from.
Personally, I find the idea of the Hokey Pokey taking its place alongside triune goddesses, trickster figures, were-creatures and the little ash girl in something akin to the collective unconscious curiously appropriate. That the silly is as natural to us as the deeply meaningful, the light-hearted as integral as the serious. That we are naturally drawn to something that is, in the end, a bit of fun.
As an aside, I enjoyed this (nicked from Wikipedia), reminding me as it did of G.K. Chesterton's Variations on an Air in which he re-writes Old King Cole to parody the style of various poets: "In the Washington PostStyle Invitational readers were asked to "rewrite some banal instructions." Jeff Brechlin of Potomac Falls, Maryland wrote a version in sonnet form as if it was written by William Shakespeare:
O proud left foot, that ventures quick within
Then soon upon a backward journey lithe.
Anon, once more the gesture, then begin:
Command sinistral pedestal to writhe.
Commence though then the fervid Hokey-Poke,
A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl.
To spin! A wilde release from heavens yoke.
Blessed dervish! Surely canst go, girl.
The Hoke, the poke--banish now they doubt
Verily, I say, 'tis what it's all about."
And, while we're on the topic, another quote from Babylon 5 which seems curiously appropriate: "When we're about to do something stupid, we like to catalog the full extent of our stupidity, for future reference."
1 comment:
Aheeheehee...
Your Dragon claims he can't watch B5, as he missed an episode in the first series and could never catch up...
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