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How does the text deviate from the conventions of written English?<\/b><\/p>\n What is “wrong” in the text? What is “right”?<\/b><\/p>\n What are the most common “mistakes” in the text and why do you consider them “mistakes”?<\/b><\/p>\n What if you had “scripted” the story? What difference might that have made?<\/b><\/p>\n In what ways does oral storytelling differ from written storytelling?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Oral expression, or storytelling, can exist without writing, however, writing, or written storytelling, is never without orality (Ong, 2002, p.8). Oral storytelling is a dynamic performative art, it relies on body language and a range of human faculties such as gestures, tone, volume, pace, and facial expressions (Callahan, 2006). Things like intonation and emotional content are aspects of oral storytelling that writing can not record, writing records language but not actual speech (Gnanadesikan, 2008, p.9).<\/span><\/p>\n As Mark Twain (1897) states:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe pause is an exceedingly important feature in any kind of story, and a frequently recurring feature, too. It is a dainty thing, and delicate, and also uncertain and treacherous; for it must be exactly the right length \u2014 no more and no less \u2014 or it fails of its purpose and makes trouble. If the pause is too short the impressive point is passed, and the audience have had time to divine that a surprise is intended \u2014 and then you can\u2019t surprise them, of course\u201d <\/span><\/i>(p.9).<\/span><\/p>\n Written words are residue, invented to store information (Gnanadesikan, 2008, p.2; Ong, 2002). Writing has organized and enhanced orality into a scientific art through visible markings, making meaningful connections to science and history, creating disjunctions between past and present (Haas, 2013, p.11; Ong, 2002, p.9). Writing is therefore a process of translating time into space (2), written stories are static works of art, like an artifact that is a fixed creation (Gnanadesikan, 2008, p.3, Berve, 2021).<\/span><\/p>\n As Haas (2013) discusses:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFor Ong, writing transforms human consciousness by moving language from an aural realm, where it unfolds across time, to a visual realm, where it takes on a primarily spatial quality\u201d <\/span><\/i>(p.9)<\/span>.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As such, written storytelling can be examined, analyzed, and dissected through this visual realm, written words can be pointed to and discussed compared to fleeting spoken words (Gnanadesikan, 2008, p.4). Written storytelling is a more deliberate practice than speaking, carefully crafted to convey messages more precisely, adding to the sense that writing is worth more than speech (Gnanadesikan, 2008, p.5). It is a polished artifact compared to a spontaneous performance of oral storytelling (Berve, 2021). An author is conscious of the potential audiences, they can edit draft after draft to obtain a desired effect (Callahan, 2006).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Last thoughts<\/b><\/p>\n What would society look like without writing?<\/span><\/p>\n As we have read, writing is fundamentally rooted in control:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs human societies became more complex, those attempting to control them found that their memories were overtaxed. What they needed was an external storage device. What they came up with is writing\u201d<\/span><\/i> (Gnanadesikan, 2008, p.3).<\/span><\/p>\n That the societies that have been created, based on this control, have happened in the advent of state administration and bureaucracy, in trade and commerce, and in religion. I wonder if society has just been conditioned to believe that writing is a necessity. That evolution has made our brains less capable to store information because as time went on we required our brains to store less and less information. Just think about the advent of cellphones, storing numbers I used to have memorized, having information at my fingertips so my brain inadvertently knows it does not have to retain information, and plugging every destination into google maps.<\/span><\/p>\n In a world with no writing, we may pay more attention to knowledge keepers in philosophy and science, and celebrate Indigenous ways of knowing over western practices of data and graphs. An interesting sentiment from Ong (2002);<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNevertheless, without writing, human consciousness cannot achieve its fuller potentials, cannot produce other beautiful and powerful creations\u201d<\/span><\/i> (p.14).<\/span><\/p>\n Indigenous peoples have spent thousands of years passing down stories, traditions, agricultural practices, values, beliefs, and language through oral storytelling. The First Peoples Principles of Learning were written recently, but have been practiced for centuries. Indigenous peoples have been stewards of the land for time immemorial. If someone would like to argue that the fuller potential is overpopulation, climate change, deforestation, and mass extinction at alarming rates then I welcome the discussion. These creations are powerful, yes, but not so much beautiful.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n Berve, C. (March 28, 2021). What Are the Differences between Riveting Oral and Written Storytelling. <\/span>Ignited Ink Writing<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>https:\/\/www.ignitedinkwriting.com\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n
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