Hello, again:
The following was prompted by Arthur Cordell's recent book review.
One of the topics that this anthology doesn't seem to touch on is that of
Literacy. By literacy, we usually mean the ability to read and write and
communicate by reading and writing. I wonder, though, to what extent this
definition is still viable and how long it will take for the term to
refer primarily to Oral Literacy: speaking, listening and looking. To see
what I am referring to, consider the following:
1. While corresponding with someone on another List, I (and others)
learned, after a while, that this person was blind. The technology
available to blind persons - and us - now includes software that reads
E-mail and web pages aloud.
2. There are several software programs that permit the user to compose
texts by speaking to the computer, rather than typing. Besides typing
what they want to say the user can also verbally command the computer to
do a variety of tasks. This opens up a new world for persons who are
currently illiterate.
3. The dissemination of news by way of the written language - newspapers
- has been changing for many years now: television (primarily) and radio
have been progressvely replacing newspapers; and now, the Internet is
also chipping away at what bids fair to become another Dead Media.
4. Radio is, of course, verbal, but so is most of television. As many
people have noticed, the news on television consists primarily of
head-shots and the newscaster's voice. The visual information is so
negligible that the viewer can usually treat the medium as radio and do
other things instead of being anchored to a couch. The same comments are
true of programs that offer commentary, interviews and book reviews.
5. Telephones and portable telephones are contributing to this
transformation. Long-distance calling, especially, has replaced much
letter writing.
6. The greeting card industry has been contributing to the demise of
literacy for a long time now. Whether the event is a happy or sad one,
people let the tritest of verses replace personal expressions. The range
of "ocassions" that these ready-made sentiments are available for is
extaordinary.
7. The Internet, itself, is becoming more and more oral. Streaming Audio
is improving very rapidly and archives of pubic radio programs such as
Talk of the Nation and "columnists" on WBAI in New York are becoming
common. I can listen to a program in the background while doing another
task.
8. The more sophisticated "chat" rooms now include live chat: all your
sound cards have a microphone input.
9. Last, but not least, is the little seventy-odd dollar camera-like
thing that can sit on top of monitors so people can look at each other
when they are chatting. This will certainly become even more common.
It seems to me that the thrust of all this, if it continues, is away from
a society in which everybody is (should be) reading and writing literate
to one in which the overwhelming majority will be culturally-content with
their daily entertainments (movies, sitcoms, music videos, award shows,
specials), and manufactured news bits. In such a situation, there will be
a privatization of knowledge, owned by the few and used for the benefit
of the few - which is almost the situation, now.
I recently had occassion to reread Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. In it
the Fire Chief lectures the protagonist on the history of the book that
led to its elimination by the state. The history he recounts traces the
successive shortening of books from condensations, through summaries, the
equivalent, I suppose, of Cliff Notes, its further summarization until it
disappears altogether. If I had the book, I'd quote the passage: it is
very prophetic. I am not suggestingt that the state will legislate books
out-of-existence ... I don't think they will need to do that.........
BTW: I unsubscribed from this List a long time ago. I have been slowly
reading the Archives and see that many of the names from my past are
still here, which is sort of comforting ......
BTW #2: Some of you may be interested in the Dead Media Society. It's for
real and will be found at:
http://griffin.multimedia.edu/~deadmedia/
Robert
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