Response Orality and Literacy

In this reading by Walter J. Ong, the main idea the author is trying to get across is "orality," is a way in which we can better understand the "new" world of writing. "There is no way directly to refute a text. After absolutely total and devastating refutation, it says exactly the same thing as before. The one reason why 'the book says' is popularity tantamount to 'it is true'. It is also one reason why books have been burnt." (pg. 78) In other words, the reading books right off the paper os sort of becoming something that is in the past. We learn in this reading that Plato thinks that writing destroys one's memory. This came as a surprise to me because since he is a philosopher, I would think that writing is something that he thinks is very important. But he believes this because people who use writing will rely too much on "external resources." But in order for Plato to make these arguments... he is in fact writing them down, so it sort of contradicts some of his statements being made. Plato looks as writing as a weird sort of technology, but for us this new technology is the computer. Walter J. Ong makes a valid point in stating "By contrast with natural, oral speech, writing is completely artificial. There is not way to write "naturally." Oral speech is fully natural to human meings in the sense that every human being in every culture who is not physiologically or psychologically impaired learns to talk." (pg. 81)