EL336: WM Ong

Page 321:

"Although we take writing so much for granted as to forget that it is a technology, writing is in a way the most drastic of the three technologies of the word. It initiated what printing and electronics only continued, the physical reduction of dynamic sound to quiescent space, the separation of the word from the living present, where alone real, spoken words exist."

Quiescent means still, dormant, or motionless. I found this to be very true and something I never realized because I do take writing for granted. In this statement Ong disproves Socrates' belief that speaking is less intelligent than writing. Ong continues in saying that although words are indeed dead, they live on in their concreteness. This reminds me of the topic Jeremy and I agreed on when we disagreed with Socrates (I know it's actually Plato, I still can't help but think it's Socrates words though. Is that weird?) stance on speaking versus writing. Speech has a way of getting lost in translation when carried on through many people. Ong even goes as far as saying that that text has more potential than the spoken word because of it's permanence, its "rigid visual fixity."

He does make the counterpoint in saying that for any text to be truly successful it must be converted into sound, either within ourselves or in the outside world. Hmm...