Blind People belong in a category all their own. This is in no way a judgement or in any way making fun of their impairment. In a certain way, I’m actually awed and extremely curious about how they would fit into Orality and Literacy. The whole point of the book is to draw academic distinctions about how Oral Cultures are different from Cultures with a written language (or perhaps a phonetic vs. non-phonetic, as in the difference between Chinese and English). And where my curiosity starts to heighten is when we think of blind people as living in a visual society, as Oral members. Ong continuously draws distinctions (especially in chapter 4) about the differences in thinking processes between Oral and Literate Cultures and of course this would lead one to wonder about what if someone was living in a culture where they didn’t belong. Naturally, they would try to fit in, but when they meet up with a barrier that stops them, such as a speech impediment (think Moses from the Bible) or a visual impediment that cannot be overcome, they need to adapt accordingly.
Of course people with total blindness are a relatively small fraction of our society, but it begs the question of whether or not the people who are completely blind can equally exist in a society with exit signs, poison labels, obstacles, and street signs. The short answer is
“no, they cannot”. They need to have dogs to guide them, or someone who will walk with them and help care for them. I am not saying that blind people are bad or that they can’t live a normal life, etc. But when there are such clear distinctions being drawn between Oral and Literate cultures, I wonder if living as a blind person would have been much more manageable when living during Homer’s time because of the fact that they lived in a society that focused less on what was seen with the eyes and more about what is heard through the ears.
1 comment:
I think they would have more value in a way. In a lot of the books I've read, a lot of cultures value the blind because they can focus their skills on storytelling, learning history and storing knowledge.
I remember reading a fiction book about this newly-made king whose first job was to listen to a blind person who memorized all the names of the preceding kings, along with with their nicknames. It was a long list, and the king kept interrupting on accident and the man kept having to start at the beginning because that's how they memorized it, based on time/nicknames. Thor the Mighty, Vlad the Impaler, that sort of thing. I wondered back then if it was possible to memorize so much, but I guess it is possible now that I've learned more about it.
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