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Walter Ong: Writing is a Technology (Writing requires equipment (Medieval…
Walter Ong: Writing is a Technology
Literacy appears as normal
Writing seems to be an obligatory skill
The technical character of writing cannot be understood without understanding orality
Without writing the literate mind could not think as it does
We have interiorized the technology
Primary Orality
Cultures with no knowledge of writing
Of 4000 languages spoken today only 78 have a literature
even today many peoples do not believe their language can be written
thinks of words as a sequence of sounds
like a bar of music
all that has been learnt over the ages has to be kept alive through repitition
Writing requires equipment
stylus
brushes
pens
paper
inks
animal skins
Medieval authors used Scribes because of the physical labour involved
point of production of writing implements and the text closely alligned
Modern pens
Divergence between production of implements in factory and the production of the text
Writing is artifical
raises consciousness
enhances human life
Like modern musician a scribe has to be a technician
has to interiorize the technology
Plato
Writing
Establishes outside the mind that which can only be within the mind
Writing is unresponsive
Cannot be refuted
therefore, burning of texts
destroys memory
will lead to forgetfulness
Ong links this to the fear that the 'calculator' will weaken the mind
Fear with print that "abundance of books will make men less studious"
Writing creates
Separation
knower
from
known
promotes objectivity
between them interposes the tangible
text
print intensifies the distance
the printed text is more tangible
knowledge cannot be transferred directly from person to person
the recipient has to learn it for herself
needs a
medium
interpretation
from
information
word
from
sound
between
oral-aural
and
visual
every reading of a text consists of restoring the sound
speaker
from
hearer
word
from
context
oral cultures always in context
administration
from
other social activities
oral societies were tight-knit
no need for administration
logic
from
rhetoric
learning
from
wisdom
eg. Oral cultures did not have lists of proverbs
diglossia
'high' language
from
'low' language
Philosophy depends on writing
all elaborate, linear, logical explanation depends on writing
Separation increases with the Computer
information translates to 'bits'
yes-no