Thursday, February 11, 2010
Blog 3
What is important to keep in mind is Ong's argument here. At minimum, I think Ong is pretty clearly- and in compelling ways- suggesting that oral and literate cultures are quite radically different from each other. And while I don't think he would make this claim directly, I think Ong is implying that literate cultures are "better". After all, it is through literacy that we get things like "study", a clearer sense of history, complex civic and arrangements, etc.
Ong talks about issue in great detail in "part II" of this essay, which begins on page 21. Essentially, Ong says that Plato's complaint about the technology of writing is very much modern
complaint, how spellcheckers are making us worse spellers,how calculators make us worse at math,how video games and television make it so kids don't read,etc.
So what Ong is saying is this:when we talk about how everything is going worse because of a technology ( word processing, internet ...),that's exactly like Socrates saying way back when that
everything is going to hell because of literacy. And, what Ong says,nothing could possibly be further from the case.
Ong talks about issue in great detail in "part II" of this essay, which begins on page 21. Essentially, Ong says that Plato's complaint about the technology of writing is very much modern
complaint, how spellcheckers are making us worse spellers,how calculators make us worse at math,how video games and television make it so kids don't read,etc.
So what Ong is saying is this:when we talk about how everything is going worse because of a technology ( word processing, internet ...),that's exactly like Socrates saying way back when that
everything is going to hell because of literacy. And, what Ong says,nothing could possibly be further from the case.
The letter to your dad is good evidence on your initial writing stage, but how did you master your skills in order to write a whole essay for your English class? Does your focus pertain to writing in order to be considered literate? How did writing make you feel like an "individual" or "breadwinner"? Try to make your focus a little bit more clear.
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