[MD] words/time

[MarshaV]

Chapter 4

WRITING RESTRUCTURES CONSCIOUSNESS

    "A deeper understanding of pristine or primary orality enables us to better understand the new world of writing, what it truly is, and what functionality literate human beings really are: beings whose thought processes do not grow out of simply natural powers but out of these powers as structured, directly or indirectly, by the technology of writing.  Without writing, the literate mind would not and could not think as it does, not only when engaged in writing but normally even when it is composing its thoughts in oral form.  More than any other single invention, writing has transformed human consciousness."

         (Ong, Walter J., 'Orality and Literacy', p. 77) 


Marsha:
Totally fascinating!  I think the ideas presented in this book have a lot to say about the intellectual level, as abstract thinking, and how it evolved and differs from the social level.  I hope I peaked someone's interest.  


Marsha