Both Borgmann's Ivan Illich's study book/text development was fascinating; especially the subtle progression from reading text aloud to silent reading. It never ocurred to me that reading silently was an impressive skill. Borgmann reports that St. Augustine himself was impressed by St. Ambrose's ability to read text to himself:
"...when he was reading, his eyes were led across the pages and his heart uncovered insight; his voice and tongue however, were silent" (90).
It is important to understand how differently texts were composed and copied during Augustine's time to understand his amazement. Borgmann and Illich note that spellling, grammar and punctuation were not formalized. Quotations were especially difficult to read. Styles like the one I employed above did not become formalized for quite some time. It would take a keen and perceptive mind to understand a text without the aid of inflection and vocal rhythm. Spoken language and the written word can often differ markedly. For example, in early China (and most likely today), dialects differed markedly, but the people could communicate universally with the written word. In short, the connection between spoken and written language cannot be taken for granted.
Illich, moreso than Borgmann, identifies the changes in this rather informal method of text composition and copying during the Middle Ages as a technological advancement. For me, this was the greatest revelation of the readings. As a culture, we tend to think of technological advancements in purely scientific, almost electronic terms. But changes in language and writing that facilitate communication should be considered new "technology" as well. Just as in the sciences, language and language changes, are highly contentious subjects. The post-colonialist/post-modern Irish writer Brian Friel explored the importance of language change and alteration in much of his work, for example. The changes Illich discussed were smaller, but no less impacting.
The one that fascinated me most was the development of refernecing and the shift to silent reading. When silent reading became the norm, Illich interestingly points out, increasingly became repertories "of the author's thought" and less a "record of the author's speech" (95). This change helped change the purpose of a book or text in the mind of readers. It became a "storage room" of knowledge to be mined rather than an "adventuresome pilgrimage" (Illich 95). Whether this was an unfortunate change, or a complete one, is left up to the individual to decide.
The second one I found highly interesting is connected with teh first. Illich pointed out that scholars like Abelard and Peter Lombard began to add more personal comment to texts and organize them in a more readily accesible fashion. It is fascinating that silent reading is so connected with increasing indvidualism. Authors and audience alike were less dependent on each other and more interested in developing their own understanding of a text.
The devlopment of better referencing/organizing systems particularly interests me. In my own life time, with the explosion of the internet, search engines have become tremendously more advanced, so much so that "google" has become a verb. It not only shows the changing nature of language and text, but of the categorization of information. Things that might take hours to uncover, no matter how mundane, like discovering who played Merlin Jones in the 1960s Disney films, are seconds from our fingertips. We can even search for specific words in a text with the "ctrl+f" function.
What do all these changes mean for people? Maybe more knowledge, perhaps more independence, but there is the possibility it is damaging as well. By losing the wonder, and sense of mystery that used to accompany the writings of great authors, and treating their wisdom as a tool, maybe we lost an important path to deeper understanding. Maybe the long, and often grueling, quest to uncover answers from a text, including having it read aloud, was part of the process of acquiring wisdom.
...And for all those interested, Tommy Kirk played the title character in the Merlin Jones films.
Iris
No comments:
Post a Comment