NYMA:
Mother Always Said
The introduction to Walter J. Ong’s (2002) Orality & Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word reminded us that “literacy ... transforms consciousness, producing patterns of thought which to literates seem perfectly commonplace and ‘natural’ but which are possible only when the mind has devised and internalized, made its own, the technology of writing” (p. 1). Language washes over us, changes us, shapes us. With these transitions, we should begin to see new genres of communication that allow for the constant reshaping of literate practices. Even as we resist these changes, they happen. We can choose whether to stand or to move, but the changes happen regardless.
“The new medium here reinforces the old, but of course transforms it because it fosters a new, self-consciously informal style” (Ong, as cited in Dock, 1996, p. 61). And thus, we have created the new argument that is both everything and nothing, a website and a blog, a podcast, and a video. We draw on, and we draw on, seeking ways to continue the conversation, seeking relevance.
“The nature of texts, of language, of literacy itself is undergoing crucial transformations. Along with these transformations come shifts in the sites of literacy.” (William Costanzo, 1994, p. 11)
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The nature of texts, of language, of literacy itself
