It’s been a bit, but I wanted to wait till I moved my web host first. Now that that is done, let get back to it, shall we?
So… where were we in our exploration of Ong’s psychodynamics of orality?
Last time we were looking at the Verbomotor Lifestyle. I wrapped up with some discovery around kids not wanting to talk, which at first seems to contradict my theory a bit.
My radio teacher did get back, we’re going to talk more, but for the moment he shared this observation, which I’ve paraphrased.
There are profound feelings of vulnerability and judgement. That there is a preference on the written word or recorded image. The ability to capture many takes, revise and rewrite to come across in the most flattering light.
It makes me think of another psychodynamic:
Orality, community and the sacral
Ong outlines that the spoken word and community become revered in a way.
He explains that the Hebrew word dabar means word and also event. Because the spoken word is an event to be cherished.
In Christianity, God never writes to anyone, he speaks. The the sermon is always out loud and spoken.
In fantasy fiction like The Lord of the Rings or The Kingkiller Chronicle, authors have picked up on this long standing sentiment, that there is this long time understood magic in the spoken word.
Perhaps, the newer aliterate generations are understanding this more than we realize.
Sacred things do give a sense of “the big feels”, the awe, and to some nervousness. Sacred things have that feeling of importance. I’ve heard many say, if it wasn’t important you wouldn’t be nervous.
The new sacral
Back to dabar. In our world of technology, a true event is an immediate, live, event. YouTube video’s and podcasts aren’t “events” until they are streaming live. Concerts, plays, presentations, all events, live, right now.
Orality is intertwined with ephemeral; immediacy; presence; the present.
And perhaps it’s technology alone, or more aliterate technology that understands the profound weight of the moment. That anything can be modified or updated so long as it’s not in the present. Even a small lag time to add a filter, or a few seconds to delete a post or bleep it out is a bit “safer”.
