A Meme's Memory: A Meditation on the Viral Spread of Ideas

Thursday, October 18, 2012 - 10:30am to 11:30am
Helen S. Schaefer Building, home to the UA Poetry Center and the Humanities Seminars Program, 1508 E. Helen Street (at Vine Avenue), UA campus

A Meditation on the Viral Spread of Ideas

presented by Ken S. McAllister, Department of English 

Charlie the Unicorn. Honey Badger. Coke and Mentos. Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. No Impact Man. The Cinnamon Challenge. Gangnam Style. These and dozens of other internet memes over the years have entertained and amazed us, often many times over. What strange dynamo drives their circulation across geo political boundaries and with such alacrity? McAllister will pursue these and related questions by way of a meditation on the compulsions of memory, the innovations of imitation, and the delights of a perilously captured imagination.