writing, alphabets, graphic systems. externalization of memory

Our readings last week were two passages from the Phaedrus — Rhetoric, actual and ideal (266d-274) and The inferiority of the written to the spoken word (274-279) — and Meggs's chapters 1 and 2, "The Invention of Writing" and "Alphabets."

The major portion of the Phaedrus is about love and the soul; the second part is more clearly devoted to rhetoric (and writing). Crudely stated, the connection of love to the soul is that love encourages the regrowth of the wings of the soul, and a release from lower forms. Resort is made to allegory to explain the mechanisms of the soul. Memory plays a crucial role, in a process of successive incarnations: It is impossible for a soul that has never seen the truth to enter into our human shape; it takes a man to understand by the use of universals, and to collect out of the multiplicity of sense-impressions a unity arrived at by a process of reason. Such a process is simply the recollection of the things which our soul once perceived when it took its journey with a god... That is why it is right that the soul of the philosopher alone should regain its wings; for it is always dwelling in memory as best it may upon those things which a god owes his divinity to dwelling upon. It is only by the right use of such aids to recollection... that a man can become perfect..." (249)

It is assumed here that graphic design is a rhetorical activity, one that involves framing information, giving things a "look," helping guide people to what they need. By focusing on some aspects of a situation, we necessarily "de-focus" others. I am put in mind of Ranganathan's APUPA pattern for presenting new bibliographic records : Umbral (materials directly relating to inquiry), between Penumbral (decreasing filiation) which shade into Alien (thought with little filiation with subject at hand). The graphic designer — like the artist, orator, author — manages attention.

The fact is, Phaedrus, that writing involves a similar disadvantage to painting. The productions of painting look like living beings, but if you ask them a question they maintain a solemn silence. The same holds true of written words; you might suppose that they understand what they are saying, but if you ask them what they mean by anything they simply return the same answer over and over again.
Plato, Phaedrus (Hamilton — Penguin Classics — translation)

The danger of writing is that it externalizes memory; memory, written, cannot engage in a relationship with anyone, cannot gauge what needs to be heard at any point, for there to be understanding. We read these excerpts of this dialogue at this point, because they coincide with Meggs's account of the appearance of writing and alphabets, and hence a threat to a certain mode of access to wisdom.

Richard Lanham, in The Economics of Attention: Style and substance in the age of information (2006), places Socrates's criticism of writing in a long tradition of fear of competition for attention. Any new medium (writing, books, printed books, internet etc) is a new form of competition for attention that may be resisted by those invested in current media/forms.

Lanham also usefully restates Eric Havelock's understanding of the importance of the Greek alphabet, as being transparent — You looked right through it to the conceptual arguments it could be employed to set forth (p115). While Havelock approved this "transparent" alphabet, there have been (and continue to be) others, including hieroglyphs, concrete poetry, and surely many of the writing systems discussed in

Kreamer, Christine Mullen, Mary Nooter Roberts, Elizabeth Harney and Allyson Purpura. Inscribing meaning : writing and graphic systems in African art. [Washington, D.C.] : Smithsonian, National Museum of African Art ; [Milan?] : 5 Continents, c2007.

I read this passage from that volume —
...while most ancient texts were eventualy recorded in alphabetic script, they originated in performance, and much early writing is characterized by ‘recitation literacy… [which is] based on the idea that while letters may have interpenetrated into an oral situation, the oratorical nature of writing and the link between oral discourse and writing were very strong in ancient cultures. The same can be said for earlier and contemporary Islam, and for most African cultures in which texts were and are recited or enacted through performances ranging from praise poems, king lists, epics, songs, divination, genealogies, and narratives both personal and communal, even after becoming transcribed into written texts by missionaries and scholars. Certain of the Classical philosophers, such as Plato, recognized regretfully that writing brought ‘not improved memory, but forgetfulness, by providing the literate with an external device to rely on...
Mary Nooter Roberts, Elizabeth Harney, Allyson Purpura and Christine Mullen Kreamer. Inscribing Meaning; Ways of Knowing, page 21.

Before wandering irrecoverably down the alphabetic path, let's return to the Phaedrus. Writing is not an able teacher or orator, because it is not equipped to analyze and assess the conditions and needs of the audience (reader), and thereby make a prognosis (hence, the comparison of rhetoric to medicine).

During class, we discussed alternatives to this pessimistic view of writing. One can develop good instincts for searching through information; technologies of writing have freqently included alternative channels for grasping and evaluating the information; wikis and blogs and even well-tuned search engines can help someone find the right path. There is also the question of what kind of writing is crucial: writing on souls, or on paper.

Finally (?), our cognitive system may require that ideas be clothed in form (typographic, visual, bodily), so that our bodies (scars and all) too can participate in understanding. The visual (or tactile, or aural) can encourage an emotional connection without which no communication can happen. Lanham is relevant here, by arguing for a necessary oscillation between style and substance, form and meaning.

I will doubtless be revising this post over time. We should be thinking about the connection with graphic design, too!