Christine Spurgeon
Professor Steven Krause
ENG 328- Writing Technology Essay
As students of language and literature, most of us respect and admire writing in theory and practice. Yet few had considered the mechanics of its creation or its status among the most influential instruments of humanity. Exposure to the readings we have studied and our first assigned project have prompted me to reflect on the practice of writing in an entirely new light. I had never before considered it to be a technology, operating initially with tools forged from minimal natural resources and on the nascent foundations of the profound, immeasurable and integral connections between spoken language and the written word.
After these new experiences and considering the development of written characters from the days of Sumerians and Mesopotamia that Ong and Baron reference to the artful crafting of books Manguel describes, I am convinced that human beings are inherently inclined to write, much as they are to speak. Initially given its prevalence writing seems to have always existed, inseparable from myself as Ong points out or from the “value-laden notions of literacy, art, and science, of history and psychology, of education and theory,” (Barron, 71). It is clear to me now that writing is a technology, advancing by leaps and bounds each generation. It also seems evident that human beings are naturally predisposed to use this means of expression, having united to collectively embrace and define writing much in the manner of speech.
When beginning this project, it really took quite a while to devise suitable materials to use in lieu of traditional pen and paper. I had to think and think more to come up with something portable, durable, and not immediately perishable. I first considered using some type of ink on a surface, though there were not any deep colored berries readily at hand nor horses from whose tails I could pluck hairs to tie to a stick and make a brush. I was not prepared to shed my own blood in the name of my experiment. I could not come up with any type of ink from natural sources that wouldn’t likely dry and flake away, mold, or soon fade from a writing surface. I soon abandoned the idea of ink and decided that carving into the determined surface was more enduring. Living in 21st century Detroit I enjoyed the benefit of a razor blade, but I imagine the Sumerians used sharp rocks. I tried to think of this from a minimalist standpoint and create from my surroundings. I tried carving into tree bark which easily broke apart, as well as orange peels which I imagined would shrivel and compromise my words. I ultimately decided on lasagna, which is decidedly manufactured but I rationalized by telling myself that pasta was made of natural resources and has been around for a very long time. I recognize the severe impracticality of using pasta as a medium. Ancient people would have likely never considered this an appropriate use of time and resources. Use of food in this way would have probably been akin to blasphemy. The carving was tedious, and wore on both the fingers and nerves, but I successfully carved a short message.
Ultimately when one considers the lack of ready materials and the terrific amount of time invested in the first stages of writing as a progressing technology, as well as the resistance we have read it encountered from common people and great minds, yet somehow transcended, it seems that human beings as a species must be innately driven to extend their language through writing or it could never have become such an absolute part of human existence. It may have began out of necessity but was only a matter of time and accessibility until writing expanded from business to personal, artistic and propaganda.
While thinking and carving I was struck by how fantastic it is that any person of old ever considered fashioning characters to record anything at all, having literally no convenient implements at hand to do so nor ones that would really even seem to inspire the original thought. Though this spark of artistry is what distinguishes the human experience from that of the animal, is it not? It has been said that necessity is the mother of creation. According to Dennis Baron, the first Sumerian cuneiforms were recordings of land and tax transactions. It is interesting to speculate that these were likely necessary to make up for the inconsistencies of spoken words and acts in business interactions, while the dialogues of Phaedrus were highly concerned with the untruths that could potentially be written and the virtues of spoken communications. It could be argued that speech as well as writing, is only the “semblance of truth,” as Plato’s Socrates calls letters. Speech too is a recollection of events, possibly affected by time or circumstance and neither equals empirical evidence and first-hand experience.
Recently in another class I have studied texts by Olaudah Equiano, 18th century author of the first self-written slave narrative. He lived in Africa until the age of 12, when he was captured and enslaved until the age of 20. Only able to gain scraps of knowledge through his teenage years, he was kept physically and intellectually oppressed and was subjected to severe abuses. He was not able to freely practice writing until his twenties and had very little exposure to the written word prior to that. Despite these circumstances, this man became a highly skilled and eloquent writer of multiple languages. Without an inherent tendency towards writing, similar to language, this man’s accomplishments seem impossible when one considers the gravity of his situation.
There are some people in life who just seem to easily understand how to use written language, where to place a semi colon and how to spell difficult words. Those people read a sentence and can sense its accuracy or errors. These people are more in touch with something that nevertheless is likely imbedded in us all. Learning to write language follows many of the same patterns as learning to speak- first a child learns to pronounce or recognizes certain phones and letters. They then learn basic phrases and words pertaining to themselves and their lives, gradually working towards more complete phrases. Writing mirrors speech and adheres to the same rules of semantics and syntax. With each, a group reaches a consensus (truth by agreement?) that each spoken or written device represents a thing or idea. Just as spoken language and sounds are learned to be associated with things and concepts over time with exposure, written words and letters are associated with these sounds and language over time, with exposure.
Walter Ong says that spoken language differs from writing in that “oral speech is fully natural to human beings in the sense that every human being in every culture who is not physiologically or psychologically impaired learns to talk.” (Ong, 23.) This is true if the child is surrounded by other people who are talking, correcting his speech and pronunciation, and the child is constantly surrounded by language. It has been proven by Olaudah Equiano and countless others who have taught themselves to read and write that a human being surrounded by writing will often have not only a natural curiosity and desire to write but the ability to teach oneself if in a conducive context, similar to a child learning to speak. Ong allows that “written text, for all its permanence, means nothing, is not even a text, except in relation to the spoken word.” (Ong, 23.) Writing and speaking share mysterious connections, but it seems apparent that humans are naturally inclined towards both.
Plato’s Socrates and other philosophers of old and new debate the virtues of speaking versus writing. As wise and learned as these people were, they were not in a position to recognize that writing was as inevitable and unavoidable as speaking. Ong says writing is “utterly invaluable and indeed essentially for the realization of fuller, interior human potentials.” (Ong, 23.) Yet he also says it is not nature. Human beings are of nature, their contrivances may not be perceived as entirely natural but their ability to contemplate and create could be nothing but. Writing is natural in the sense that we are born with the ability to conceive and create, therefore it is only natural that we would do so.
Our tendency towards society and creativity would only allow that we need methods of communication to use in common with others and promote the expansion of ideas. Our advancements as a race are largely due to our ability to build upon the work others have recorded. It cannot be denied our spark of creativity is natural and human, and we would need a form of communication that would facilitate our drive to invent. Our Socrates speaks of the tender growths of thought an old man relives as he enters old age- without writing it would have taken a very long time for mankind to advance beyond the tender growths of each generation, of different regions. Writing could not have become so universal if we were not driven by some inner force to make it so.
Occasionally I think some combination of words I find witty or lovely and regret not writing it down. Left only with the vague knowledge that I forgot something I wish I would have remembered for the sake of itself and it will likely never come back. People write for a variety of reasons. Many of us remember what is important to us and write down what is necessary but not necessarily passionate in their lives. Some write for instructional or didactic purposes, others for vanity and self-indulgence or catharsis. Many creative minds want to record their musings and write to communicate values, opinions or ideas. Some write in an attempt to create a lasting novel that evokes pathos in all who read it and is studied in institutions of higher learning for years to come. While many of us have skill, some have talent and few have brilliance, it seems evident we all have the natural and inherent ability, under the right circumstances and instruction, to not only learn to speak a language but communicate it and immortalize in writing.
Works Cited
Baron, Dennis, “From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies” from
Passions, Pedagogies, and Twenty-first Century Technologies, Ed. Gail E.
Hawisher and Cynthia L. Selfe. Logan: Utah State University Press, 1999. 15-33.
Equiano, Olaudah, and Werner Sollors. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah
Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. New York: Norton, 2001. Print.
Manguel, Alberto. “The Shape of the Book.” A History of Reading. New York: Viking,
1996. 125-148.
Ong, Walter. “Writing is a Technology that Restructures Thought.” Literacy: A Critical
Sourcebook. Eds. Ellen Cushman, Eugene R. Kintgen, Barry M. Kroll, and Mike
Rose. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001. 19-31.
“From Plato’s Phaedrus.” Web Page.
<http://www.stevendkrause.com/academic/eng328/phaedrus.html>
