The Written Word (food for thought)

I don't know why but today while I was sitting at work (bored out of my mind) I suddenly remember all this stuff that I learnt about last year before I was really an active member on Mibba.

I think some Mibba members might be interested in it, since most of us consider ourselves to be writers.

At Uni several lecturers of mine kept talking about 'the technologies of the written word' and making references to the written word being an invention. I honestly had never thought of it that way before.

Think about it; at some point, someone had to think 'I have a word for this object that I say, but how about finding a way of cataloging these words?' or... something like that anyway. Ignore for a second the fact that the English language didn't always exist. Say the word glass for example. The word that you say 'glass' always existed, but at some point someone thought to make a written representation of that word as well.

Does that make more sense? (now obviously I know the English language didn't always exist and came about after the written word did)

I wrote an essay (albeit a short 600 word one) on how the written word expands human knowledge and the human memory. It assists us in a way I never realised before and perhaps you haven't either.

I read about a study that was done where both literate and illiterate people were asked to self-analyse. The illiterate people only referred to external situations while the literate people spoke more internally.

One of them was asked the question 'What sort of person are you, what's your character like, what are your good qualities and short comings? How would you describe yourself?' his response was 'I came here from Uch-Kurgan, I was very poor and now I'm married and have children'. I don't need to say what a literate person responded with because even though with questions like that you might not know off the top of your head what to say, you all know the manner in which you would answer 'I'm a friendly outgoing person' etc, you'd focus more internally on things like thoughts and emotions, because you're more privy to that world.

See the reason that I believe this difference comes to be so, is that writing creates for more complex thought patterns. Why? Because we don't have to consciously remember everything straight away. We have the aid of writing something down and being able to read it later to help us remember what we've already thought. You could almost say the writing extends our memory.

Anyway, I have no idea where I'm going with this just that I was thinking about it and I find it really interesting. Maybe it's really boring, I don't know. If you have any additional thoughts I'd really love to hear them.

... on a completely random side note; today my mum made brownies with mayonnaise. Surprisingly enough, they're some of the best brownies I've ever had. It's just weird thinking there mayonnaise in them...