July 26, 2010
Memorizing Milton
John Basinger memorized all twelve books of Milton’s Paradise Lost.
Just how did JB manage to pull off this incredible feat? He studied for about one hour per day, reciting verses in seven-line chunks, consistent with Miller’s magic number seven — the capacity of short-term, working memory. Added together, JB estimates that he devoted between 3000 to 4000 hours to learning the poem. Seamon’s team interpret this commitment in terms of Ericsson’s ‘deliberate practice theory’, in which thousands of hours of perfectionist, self-critical practice are required to achieve true expertise.
Basinger says:
‘During the incessant repetition of Milton’s words, I really began to listen to them, and every now and then as the whole poem began to take shape in my mind, an insight would come, an understanding, a delicious possibility. … I think of the poem in various ways. As a cathedral I carry around in my mind, a place that I can enter and walk around at will. … Whenever I finish a “Paradise Lost” performance I raise the poem and have it take a bow.’
(via marginal revolution)
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what an asshole
Pertinent story starts around minute 33, but the entire hour is incredibly fascinating.
Memorizing Milton would be like trying to chew all the gum stuck under cafe tables from coast to coast. Jesus, why not Dante? I could see doing that.