funnily enough I write to remember. My memory is shocking - I have major trouble even memorising a text or a para of shakespeare or a multi-part joke. And when you've a whole bunch of ideas flooding in on your brain - they just fall out again with a memory like mine.
That Phaedrus quote carries a pretty major punch - I think it's one of the key moments in philosophy. It does play down writing's virtues; and I think it also talks about all these lost worlds and kingdoms that the Egyptians remembered. To me literature is all about lost worlds anyway - which wouldn't be kept alive if not written down.
In a decade or two we in the digital age won't be able to countenance these ideas any more - we won't have much of a memory - and Google will be our act of remembering. Insert gloomy forecast.
funnily enough I write to remember. My memory is shocking - I have major trouble even memorising a text or a para of shakespeare or a multi-part joke. And when you've a whole bunch of ideas flooding in on your brain - they just fall out again with a memory like mine.
ReplyDeleteThat Phaedrus quote carries a pretty major punch - I think it's one of the key moments in philosophy. It does play down writing's virtues; and I think it also talks about all these lost worlds and kingdoms that the Egyptians remembered. To me literature is all about lost worlds anyway - which wouldn't be kept alive if not written down.
In a decade or two we in the digital age won't be able to countenance these ideas any more - we won't have much of a memory - and Google will be our act of remembering. Insert gloomy forecast.
that last put me in mind of this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ctheory.net