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We typically think of stories going from an oral history, to written, and staying there politely. But without much notice, a lot of stories have mutated, and become oral stories once again.
While the book famously states that the monster has no name, the oral history differs. We call the monster Frankenstein, and he has big bolts coming out of the side of his head.
My University introduction held a nasty surprise during an early lecture. The lecturer informed us that Rousseau and Thomas Hobbes held very different ideas about 'the State of Nature', so we should compare and contrast those ideas. While Rousseau held that humans in the State of Nature would wander, autistic and alone, in the early days of the world, Hobbes (he informed us) claimed that in the State of Nature, humans were perpetually at war with each other, due to having no leadership.
I wrote down what he had told me, then dutifully went to reference the statement I had just written about Hobbes' idea. But Hobbes had written no such thing, so I could not find any reference.
After failing to find the passage, I had a computer search the book. Once that failed, I translated 'State of Nature' into Latin, then searched for *that* in case Hobbes had been using some Latin phrase (as was the style at the time). Then again, but for Greek. The searches returned nothing. Thomas Hobbes had never spoken about the State of Nature, but the 'State of Warre'.
So Hobbes had defined the 'State of Warre' as *X*, and Rousseau had defined the 'State of Nature' as *Y*. We have no reason to 'compare and contrast'. However, by changing the wording a little, we get a university-style question which has been passed from lecturer to student for generations.
Thomas Hobbes' 'State of Nature' forms part of the oral history of any university's Philosophy department.
The Biblical God decreed in *Genesis*:
Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth.
That's the written history, and but anyone reading this should come away surprised, because the *oral* history we've been told states two of each animal.
We have plenty more examples here. Wise men visited Jesus, but the Bible does not state 'three', just a plurality. The Bible does not speak against abortion but in fact gives instructions for how priests should give abortions. Eve did not eat an apple, but some unknown 'fruit'. A snake in the garden tempted her, but nobody called the snake 'Satan' at any point. Christians hold strong beliefs about abortion, but the only abortion mention we can find in the Bible instructs men how to force an abortion on a wife they suspect of infidelity (Numbers 5:11-31).
Childhood stories have formed our stories *about* the Bible, passed from mother to child during bedtime stories.
I once thought that everyone just had the wrong idea about the Bible. Nowadays I tend to think that we have an oral history, evolving naturally, just as it did before anyone penned the Bible.
Internet-people have talked a lot about mass misrememberings of various things
These examples are minor, but still clear examples of an oral history emerging from books and films.
Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) rules once counted each real-world day as time which would pass in-game, but almost nobody played this rule. Various vloggers have started discussing the rule online as if it were ancient, hidden lore (which I suppose it is), but the question remains - why did people miss that rule, but not any of the rules about the Strength Modifier? Why did *everyone* miss it?
I think the answer is mostly that D&D is very much an oral tradition. People game with different groups, and pick up the rules mostly from those groups. Very few read the rules from start to finish - instead they reference what they need during play. The printed rules are secondary to what everyone says.