Harry Tuttle Wrote:
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> honestly, I still think her story is
> over-dramatized... I mean... that bitch made her
> touch the water and all of a sudden, she magically
> learned to read and write...
>
> Puh-lease...
Puh-lease, indeed.
Here's is Keller's description of the breakthrough; there's nothing "magical"
about it, unless the phenomenon of the human mind being able to learn and use
language is itself magical:
Quote:
We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the
honeysuckle with which it was covered.
Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout.
As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word
water, first slowly, then rapidly.
I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers.
Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten--a thrill of
returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me.
I knew then that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing
over my hand.
That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free!
There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept
away.
End of quote.
"We all understand that humans are symbol processors."
Negro Revolutionary Report, vol 16, p. 1124, Sept. 1956.
Quote:
As McLuhan sees it — in the simplest terms, here is his theory step by step:
People adapt to their environment, whatever it is, with a certain balance of the
five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.
If something steps up the intensity of one sense, hearing for example, the other
senses will change intensity too, to try to regain a balance. A dentist, for
example, can practically shut off pain-sense of touch — by putting earphones on a
patient and pouring intense noise into his ear-sense of hearing.
Every major technology changes the balance of the senses.
One of the most explosive of these technologies was the development of the
printing press in the fifteenth century.
Before that, people’s senses still had pretty much the old tribal balance.
That is to say, the sense of hearing was dominant. People got their information
mainly by hearing it from other people. People who get their information that way
are necessarily drawn closer together, in the tribal way. They have to be close
to each other in order to get information. And they have to believe what people
tell them, by and large, because that is the only kind of information they can
get. They are interdependent.
They are also more emotional. The spoken word is more emotional than the written
word.
It carries emotion as well as meaning.
The intonation can convey anger, sorrow, approval, panic, joy, sarcasm, and so
forth.
This aural man, the tribal man, reacts more emotionally to information. He is
more easily upset by rumors. His and every body else’s emotions — a collective
unconscious — lie very near the surface.
The printing press brought about a radical change. People began getting their
information primarily by seeing it — the printed word.
The visual sense became dominant.
Print translates one sense — hearing, the spoken word — into another sense sight,
the printed word.
Print also converts sounds into abstract symbols, the letters.
Print is orderly progression of abstract, visual symbols.
Print led to the habit of categorizing — putting everything in order, into
categories, “jobs,” “prices,” “departments,” “bureaus,” “specialties.”
Print led, ultimately, to the creation of the modern economy, to bureaucracy, to
the modern army, to nationalism itself...
Print caused an “explosion” — breaking society up into categories.
The electronic media, on the other hand, are causing an “implosion,” forcing
people back together in a tribal unity.
The aural sense is becoming dominant again.
People are getting their information primarily by hearing it.
End of quote (excerpt from Tom Wolfe, "What if He is Right?").
Think, it ain't illegal yet. - Cary Weedman