Aliteracy - something that doesn't apply to any of us...

[Amy Z]

Pippin wrote:

> 	Somehow these words made me imagine a bunch of Phoenician 
> curmudgeons  complaining that this new fangled alphabet would be the 
> death of story-telling...;) 

But you must admit they were right.  Storytelling--the actual, 
out-loud spinning of tales--is almost unknown except in cultures where 
literacy is very rare.  If you've ever had the joy of hearing a 
storyteller, you know what a terrible loss that has been for our 
literate culture.

Plato also warned that writing would be the death of memory, and he 
was right also.  How many modern-day people can recite the Odyssey 
aloud without reading it?

When a new medium becomes dominant, an old one tends to fade.  The new 
one is not necessarily inferior to the old all told, but something is 
lost, and it's important for us to remember what it is.  I, for one, 
have grown up loving movies and books, and I'm very glad they both 
exist, but I would rather have books than movies any day.

Amy Z
who gets to read for pleasure and work at the same time--calloo! 
callay!