That really interesting thing

We've done a lot of reading in this class, however I think the reading I liked the most was Ong's "The Orality of Language." All the way back to blog #3 was when we read it, and I wrote about the idea that writing brightens consciousness. 

While researching around for a topic for my final paper, I referred back to Ong and definitely took ideas from his book "Orality and Literacy," but there are a lot of different things I found interesting in his book therefore thats probably why my final paper topic isn't quite nailed down yet. 

If I had unlimited time and resources I would go get the physical copy of Ong's book, read it, maybe even read his other book, "Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality, and Consciousness," and most likely research the differences between mostly oral cultures, and literate cultures as far as how they think, how they deal with problems, what their values are, etc. I know literate cultures are obviously more educated, but aside from education I would want to find out what benefits come from being a purely oral culture, and what the major cultural differences are. There has to be a reason why oral cultures still exist, (even though there are few of them) and what the culture as a whole claims they will lose if they change to literacy. I am interested to find out if oral cultures are more creative right-brain thinkers? (since they use art and visual aesthetics to preserve history and values). 

It may even be interesting to find out the differences between dreams from people in an oral culture and dreams of a literate person, because that would explain a lot about what is going on in the minds of each, and also just the simple question of how each interpret their dreams. 

However to find out all this information I would probably have to use my unlimited time and resources to travel to a couple different oral cultures and hang out with them, observe, record, learn, etc. 

Short Proposal for Final

The subject I found the most interesting in this class was the week on Orality and Literacy. 
I'm a big fan of language/linguistics so the switch from oral tradition to writing fascinates me, especially because not everyone today can read or write are are totally satisfied with their oral culture. 


Ong claims that orality and literacy create different kinds of human consciousness, or different kinds of knowledge. "Knowledge expressed through the oral medium takes the form of something directly experienced, where as knowledge written down can be conveyed in detached analytic categories." I've been doing some research, and it turns out some researchers, writers, psychologists are unsure as to whether listening to a story or group of words is different than reading that story when it comes to memory and recognition. Some are certain that listening is better for younger kids and reading is better as you get older. Some claim that we should wipe-out the teachers all together and have kids learn from computers with software and a lot of reading. 


Back in 700 BC when the Greek alphabet had developed, Ong claims this was a shift that "freed the mind for more original, abstract thought." however later on Plato ironically writes that "writing is a mechanical, inhuman way of processing knowledge, unresponsive to questions and destructive of memory." 


I want to argue for Plato, and explore the differences in thought processes, brain, and memory activity with oral/listening processes as opposed to writing/reading. I don't think that students (college or elementary) should have to get an education online because listening to someone more knowledgable of the subject than you is just as important as reading and writing about it. Visuals are important, and experiencing knowledge directly is important as well. 


Different aspects I am trying to organize and put together: Oral noetic/noetic, left and right brain processes, oral cultures vs written cultures, human consciousness, proto-rhetorics 


I know I need to narrow things down, so any suggestions would be appreciated. 

Q and A about Electronic lit.

Q: Hayles mentions in chapter two of his book, "electronic literature raises complex, diverse, and compelling issues." What do you think these issues might be, and how do you think the American culture specifically, would react to the idea of getting rid of print literature all together and leaving literature as digital files before they become books. 


A: There are a lot of people who are big literature lovers out there. People who would never dream of reading a book off of a computer screen, or a nook screen, or kindle, etc. These people want to have a physical book in their hand, something that doesn't require a battery charger, something they can physically look at and physically flip the pages instead of scrolling. However, some might argue that reading a book on a computer can have particular impact to the brain, eyes, and comprehension. One study shows that reading from a computer screen, actually forces one to read slower than they would read paper. 

"By far the most common experimental finding is that silent reading from screen is significantly slower than reading from paper ( Kak,1981; Muter et al, 1982; Wright and Lickorish,1983; Gould and Grischkowsky, 1984; Smedshammar et al 1989). Figures vary according to means of calculation and experimental design but the evidence suggests a performance deficit of between 20% and 30% when reading from screen."

Others claim reading from a computer screen takes away from focus, and can be incredibly distracting. One contributor (Norwegian researcher Anne Mangen) to the Boston Globe writes: 

“The feeling of literally being in touch with the text is lost when your actions - clicking with the mouse, pointing on touch screens, or scrolling with keys or on touch pads - take place at a distance from the digital text, which is, somehow, somewhere inside the computer, the e-book, or the mobile phone,’’ Mangen writes.

Her conclusion: “Materiality matters. . . . One main effect of the intangibility of the digital text is that of making us read in a shallower, less focused way.’’ 


I feel if publishers were to switch to a fully electronic book world, many Americans would fully reject it. We all know that just about anything can be found online, however when the internet turns into the only place we can receive literature, many people will suffer. Not just readers, but booksellers, shipping companies, and even online booksellers. As a college student its always nice to not have to pay for books, however if children, and teens were doing all their academic reading from a screen, I think we would see a big downturn in students' reading comprehension, and focus.