The Written Word
I read this extract from Plato’s Phaedrus about a discussion that the impact of the invention of writing would have on the future: Inventor : “My discovery provides a recipe for memory and wisdom”. King : “You know, Phaedrus, that is the strange thing about writing, which makes it truly correspond to painting. The painter’s products stand before us as though they were alive. But if you question them, they maintain a most majestic silence. It is the same with written words. They seem to talk to you as though they were intelligent, but if you ask them anything about what they say from a desire to be instructed they go on telling just the same thing forever. ” What the king says is partially true: you can’t have a conversation with written text the way you can with a person. But here’s the thing about writing: you can read, pause, think about it and then continue reading. Or go back, re-read and continue. No prizes for guessing which way we learn more: listening or reading...