Reflection: Orality, Literacy, and Modern Media

Ong explores oral culture, and the differences between the formulation and transmission of information via sound verse the written word. He looks at sound in terms of its relation to time and interiority, and then evaluates the new orality that has been brought about in today's society by electronic technology.

We start by comparing the impermanence of sound to the permanence of the written word, and what that means. Sounds are events in time, and so indicate motion. They can only be experienced as they pass out of existence. The spoken word is dynamic, alive. And so language is a kind of action, and therefore indicates power. Alternately, the written word is interpreted visually. It is stationary, available for scrutiny and analysis. It is static, dead.

Sound is unique because it is the only one of the senses that registers interiority, It is experienced 'in stereo', all around us, and so puts us in a state of inclusion and immersion with what we hear. Sound is the channel for experiencing presence. It's no coincidence that in the yoga tradition, sound is one of the most powerful forms of meditation to reach Being/presence/conscious awareness. Sound is like a metaphor for life: we resign to the fact that sound is fluid and transient, that it does not allow for examination, and so we simply remain in the eternal present with what IS. Sound is harmonious with awareness. Through sound, we find stillness. Sound also somehow conveys 'essence' in a way the written word cannot. Spoken words resonate vibrational energy, and give the sense that there exists a deeper meaning to what we hear beyond just the words themselves.

In modern society, a "secondary orality" has emerged, which simulates but does not fully recreate the primary orality. A disconnect had occurred when the written word came about, replacing communal forms of information exchange with the solitary acts of reading and writing. Radio, television, and other communication technologies have reintroduced the sense of community and connectivity to a group that was key in the oral culture. Because of technology's ubiquity, the groups can be much larger in size and scale, even global. The difference is that the new orality is purposeful, in a way that was not possible originally. Primary orality had no alternatives. The new orality exists within the framework of our literacy. Our way of thinking is rational. It's influenced by a culture based in written words, in labels, compartmentalizations, and descriptions. As a result, our attempts at a new oral tradition are well-crafted imitations of a lost orality. Something about the essence or qualia of the spoken word in an oral culture just can't be duplicated through method.