i find this fascinating

[corellianjedi]

I actually ended up just posting this on my Tumblr BECAUSE I WANT TO SHARE IT WITH EVERYONE but this is really more of an LJ entry so I'M GOING TO GEEK OUT ON YOU, LJ, OKAY? PREPARE TO BE GEEKED ON, LIBRARY STUDENT STYLE

Comments

[crawley]

LOOK MY ICON IS KATIE MCGRATH SILENT READING.

SDFKSDJGSDKLGKDFSD.

I AM STILL AMAZED BY THIS OKAY LSKDJF FEELINGS.

[lotus0kid]

Super interesting. I'm reading a book about the human memory, and the author talked about how memorization was once a requirement of all intelligent, educated people- it was practically an art form. But once the written word was popularized, all that significance placed on memorization practically disappeared. Makes me think how the Internet and GPS and whatnot are making humans dumber- hell, we've been getting dumber since we started carving words into stone.

[corellianjedi]

We actually discussed that, too, before we got to this, about the line between orality and literacy. Plato actually despised writing because he thought it destroyed memory, which is true to a point, but at some point preservation takes precedence. Despite memory being an art form, there comes a point when it is simply not enough to hold human history and so writing takes over for preservation purposes. I agree that with our constant access to the internet has destroyed our memories somewhat; are there things I haven't committed to memory because I know I have easy access to them? Sure. But the wealth of knowledge available to us is so broad that we cannot be expected to remember everything.

[zombres]

THAT IS SO INTERESTING. It's sort of crazy how we take so many things for granted or matter of fact, when so much of what makes us people happened because of something in our distant and storied past. :D

[txvoodoo]

Isn't that amazing? I also have read how Julius Caesar started putting dots above some letters/words to indicate new words.

I really don't get how even reading aloud that way worked. Spaces and punctuation indicate breaths, pauses, etc!

[subtle__sarcasm]

THAT IS SO INTERESTING. WHAT?! OMG. My mind is kind of blown :D