Ong Chapter 5

Print, Space and Closure

Hearing Dominance yields to Sight Dominance
i read to myself to understand-aural v. sight alone
reading aloud ^comprehension
no typos until chapter 5
print reading different than writing reading
print=authority,tidy,cold
manuscript=human,imperfect
print=quick undisturbed reading
manuscript=may have to decipher words
print=consumer oriented
manuscript=benefit copyist
first books-recorded utterances

Space and Meaning
indexes
lists=writing at the service of orality
print organizes words for better retrieval
visually organized v. orally
incipit=first words of text
often no titles

Books, contents and labels

Meaningful Surface
exacting print helped science evolve

typographic space
spacing words as an art form now possible
Tristram Shandy=artistic use of blank pages
Concrete Poetry/visual poetry

more diffuse effects
print brought widespread illlustrations
pictures of icons-oral heroes
print=private ownership of words
first copyright = privilegium
word became commodity


Print and closure: intertextuality
print & writing = closure
thoughts of author in final form
intertextuality=text cannot be created merely from lived experience
oral artform borrowed and borrowed
text artform each book is seperate

Post-Typography:Electronics
electronic devices are printing more books-not eliminating them
orals believe oral exchange formal
literates=informal oral exchange
technology=second orality
secondary orality audience is global village
secondary orality choses to turn outward, primary had no choice