Memorization and Bil Lepp

I had heard that Bil Lepp memorizes his stories word for word but I was glad, for one reason or another, to hear that he did not. Though written in their original form, Bil's spoken stories still have the fluidity and flexibility of others' stories. This made me think about Lipman's chapter on memorization. Lipman strongly urges against strictly memorizing a story accept under a few specific situations, and to memorize even just sections of a story with caution. Memorization causes rigidity in the telling, not to mention the fact that it can completely train wreck your performance, as Lipman said.

I never memorize stories but mostly because I am terrible at memorizing anything. But I know now that, if I feel like something desperately needs to be memorized word-for-word, Lipman has given me some useful insights!