Orality and Literature

Orality and Literature, by Ong

This was a fascinating chapter about the development of writing, how it was viewed by past civilizations, and how it has changed how we think. Ong builds upon the chapter title, “Writing Restructures Consciousness” by comparing writing to spoken word. I definitely believe that this is true. For example, I’ve kept a journal for many years and it changes my memories, reinforces some, makes others more or less prominent, etc. Similarly, written records can be used to promote certain points of view and silence others, as we learned from “Silencing the past” by Trouillot.

Ong articulates the feelings of many ancient philosophers and thinkers (like Plato) who claimed that writing was inhuman and that it destroyed memory by relying on an external source (writing/books) weakened the mind by relieving it of work. It’s true that written discourse is detached from its author, and therefore it cannot directly be questioned or criticized. Ong calls it (writing) “context-free language.” He points out that written sources were sort of distrusted, and how orality was preferred. “Witnesses were more credible than written facts because they could be challenged and made to defend their statements.”

He refutes these arguments against writing by making the point that “once the world has been technologized, there is no effective way to criticize what technology has done with it without the aid of the highest technology available.” Although oral speech is more natural to humans than writing, writing/technology is necessary in order for humans to reach their highest potential. Technology does not degrade human life. Take, for example, an orchestra. All those instruments are really just tools and machines we use to create music.

Ong goes on to take us through the different uses and forms of writing since the earliest civilizations. Early people used to draw profusely, but it was not considered writing because pictures are the representation of a thing, and writing is the representation of an utterance. He discusses the development of language, as how learned Latin is now indistinguishable from original Latin.

One of his most interesting points was that “In high technology cultures today, everyone lives each day in a frame of abstract computed time enforced by millions of printed calendars, clocks, and watches.” Although this doesn’t really connect with the theme of language, I wanted to include the quote because it’s a brilliant observation about how time isn’t real, and how we as humans impose invented structure on our lives.