Ong: Writing as Artificial

Ong presents an interesting commentary on the premise of writing as an aid to oral understanding. The paradox that writing as a dead form of interpretation, removed from the living world, amid its rigidity, and thus assuring it of an everlasting life is quite thought provoking when you think of words as life in the spoken form. When someone orally explains something to you, they may use certain mannerisms that give you a vivid interpretation, or the words can conjure up thoughts and insight through their deep peircing enthusiasm and vocal tone. The written word has the opposite effect in that it has no life as an inanimate object, except the life that you can visualize and take your imagination to places that only you can navigate.