This article talked all about the transition of writing and how it went from a transcription of speech to a structured system. There was so much debate in the beginning of this transition, especially from Socrates who’s opinions and theories were very oral speech orientated. Socrates believed that writing should just be the transcription of speech, not an actual system with rules. I believe reading and writing to be so much more than just transcribing current events and oral speech. The structured writing system has given people the power to take readers to different worlds and place themselves in situations as if they are truly they’re experiencing it, a good writer can put on a movie inside the readers head. Reading oral transcripts does not have that same ability at all, I also believe that this way of writing would be very hard to learn from. I understand that we watch lectures and listen to others talk to learn things but some things have to be explained in ways that transcribing someone exact words just can’t do. Though this part was interesting, the section that really made me think was the debate of whether sight and hearing were involved in reading or if it is just sight. In the 80s reading was seen as just an ocular activity but recently psychological studies show that there is ocular and oral actions present in the cerebral mechanisms during reading.
I don’t see reading as simply ocular, I hear the words as I read anything. Even as I’m typing this right now I can hear the words before they are being written down. This phenomena is a very hard thing to vocalize and describe, even though I know I cannot hear the words from the outside, it’s as if I have ears on the inside of my head and my subconscious is talking to me saying the words just as I am thinking them. It’s wildly interesting to me that even in the 80s, a time that feels so recent, we had a completely different understanding of the brain and it’s workings. I hope we see more advancements in the field of psychology that explains this everyday occurrence.