Unit 2 posting-

Manguel and Barron are both talking about histories of writing technologies in different ways. What sorts of connections can you make between these different essays? How do you see your own relationship with writing technologies in any of these three essays?
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What do you see as the relationship between the ideas about writing technologies and histories in these essays and the ideas discussed in the texts by Plato and Ong?

Okay- first -I like Arial! A lot!

I admit it- I am a mindless writer. I don't know HTML or understand coding on a computer. I just am grateful that when I hit an A, it happens. I know I hate that my seven and eight keys are missing, (thank you White Cat!) and my main bitch with my computer is that I don't have good battery life. I just know that when I type something, the keys do as they are told, and I am pleased. (Crossing my arms in pleasure now, staring down at my computer, good boy!)

I love pens, but hardly ever write with them- checks, lists, quick notes. We have a few yellow pencils around here, but most are mechanical ones, easier to use for most of us. When Barron spoke about ink being important for so many things, that was an "Ahhh" moment for me. Because, I am indeed mindless in many respects. When he spoke about pencils in class, and no erasers being allowed, well, I remember that! First college class? NO Spell Check (But I don't think my computer, in all it's green-ness even had spell check, but my Mac, 128 may have....)

Yup, Times have changed. My dad wrote a book that was on the best sellers list, and his editor lived with us for a bit. Because, you see, it was 1974-5, and...it was all by hand...Click Click Click-DAMN. Now, I can goggle him and find his text scanned in, but, nothing that he did was ever put into a keyboard such as mine right now. How hard was that? Pretty amazing. I guess that in many ways, I am lucky in this class, being pretty old compared to the rest of the class, that I have been through a lot of the changes over the years. Oh, I never wrote on onion paper, but we did turn in our alphabet on a portable chalk board we had at our desks in kindergarden. Yes, pens were NOT allowed until 6th grade, but then came colored paper- not allowed, either, and even though we could use pens? No colored ink! My poor 12 yo self was despondent.

I do think that litercy is important. And until I read Ong, I did not think of it as artificial. It was natural. I place litercy at the highest of human attributes. It's important. Sure, not perhaps in the highest sense at all times, but overall, I appreciate it for all it gives me. In reading Ong, I can see that indeed it IS artifical. I loved his musical connection. I guess for most of us, we practice literacy daily. But, for many, it might be an effort. I found that reading Ong out loud was interesting. I have NO idea how to pronounce some of the words, and I don't think my computer gets it right when I ask it either!

I wrote on the class discussion part (maybe too much- I am not sure what to write, and notice that not many DO write, so maybe I am doing this wrong- funny, if I was in class, I would be pretty quiet, I think...I don't tend to speak out loud, but write, I can do that! You would tell me that I was doing too much, wouldn't you?)

God Bless Mrs. Prescott. I think this woman deserves a lot more credit then she gets! So, I thank her from the bottom of my trash-book-beach-reading heart. And Orwell, poor guy, missed the boat again. Penguin- wow and amazing. They are...PENGUIN!

But, back to more of this later....