The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
Take courage! David Gelernter informs us in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that English can withstand what's being done to it by the keys of computers and phones. After all, it was e-mail that "saved the personal letter from extinction by moving it online." Yet one must be wary.
Digital words seem cheap because they are, and they grow cheaper by the day.
As a precaution against such cheapening of language, he suggests we unplug our devices for a bit. He seems to have faith that the human brain can communicate profoundly in writing if it isn't confined to little boxes with "Post" buttons and there's no temptation of using punctuation to express emotion.
I, for one, am relieved that the solution is so simple. I was worried the problem was with people and not the medium.
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May '10
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
The problem is the font. I think more clearly in Times New Roman.
Feb '11
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
I have something really profound to say, but I don't think I can do it in 200 characters or less...
Mar '11
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
...and there's no temptation of using punctuation to express emotion.
FYI - In real life I express my emotions like a modern-day Victor Borge.
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
Y U SO MAD LOLZ
Jul '10
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
n00bz
Mar '11
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
Maura Pennington:
As a precaution against such cheapening of language, he suggests we unplug our devices for a bit.
Feb '12
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
It all begins with learning the pencil grip- note kids today strangle a pen/pencil. It's a fine art like using chopsticks; muscle relaxation- then on to cursive writing and away with the free flowing ideas from wrist to fingers to ink to page the montblanc of communication.. the written word.
Apr '11
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
Oh such nonsense from old people with English majors...I don't see the need to fear the changing of the English language since it has been changing for its entire existence. We no longer use the ponderous Victorian style of writing, and as for punctuation I believe there are several languages on this planet that don't use our elaborate system of dashes and dots. We have far more expressive punctuation now any way they are called emoticons. They can show that a statement is supposed to be uttered by some one who is angry, silly, bored, sarcastic, surprised and a whole host of other human emotions.
I say down with the tyranny of commas and punctuation!
Mar '11
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
Sorry. Handwritten words don't work for me. I have been writing everything on screen since 1985, and I no longer think clearly unless I am typing.
Though I was very amused by the Gelernter article. He writes well (and one of his pieces is so good that I know it is touched with divine genius) - but he accepts English shorthand while rejecting emoticons. Why reject anything that aids communication?
Nov '10
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
I thought e-mail was what displaced the personal letter. It was for me.
Jul '10
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
It is safe to say that Gelernter doesn't share your regard for emoticons:
I don't quite agree with him, but he's funny.
Jan '11
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
Victor Borge, call your office ... wherever it might be right now.
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
Commas and periods and the offhand intimate entre nous of the parenthetical insert are vestiges of the old way of writing yes but the eye perceives things differently than the ear it needs a visual cue to establish tone and meter and purpose
Sorry. Rather:
Commas and periods (and the offhand, intimate entre-nous of the parenthetical insert) are vestiges of an old way of writing, yes. But the eye perceives things differently than the ear; it needs a visual cue to establish tone and meter and purpose.
Emoticons are useful, though. When you’re sending out something short to someone you don’t know, a flat declarative statement can be utterly misinterpreted. It’s an after-the-fact context implant, but it helps.
Dec '10
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
Maura,
We are collectively learning a simple but important lesson. In 1967 Marshall McLuhan wrote "The Medium is the Message". For the last 45 years McLuhan has often looked like a prophet. How shallow we are.
What the obsession with media has done is reduce respect for content. Every new wrinkle from PC to I-Pad is heralded as some great transformation. It turns out to be just one more hula-hoop.
What we all should be understanding by now is that it is NOT THE MEDIUM BUT THE MESSAGE THAT MATTERS.
Freedom written with a quill, a printing press, a typewriter, a PC, an I-Phone or whatever new medium comes along is still FREEDOM!!
If we wish to stay free we had better grok this right now.
Regards,
Jim
Edited on March 27, 2012 at 4:45amDec '10
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
Aaron doesn't it say something that the most common computer font is Ariel. A font in which two characters, l and I are exactly the same. If a font has any purpose at all it should be first to clearly transmit the information.
What Ariel seems to clearly transmit is some sort of genderless newspeak weirdness. I use Times New Roman only because it is not Ariel or anything like it.
Regards,
Jim
Apr '11
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
James Lileks: Commas and periods and the offhand intimate entre nous of the parenthetical insert are vestiges of the old way of writing yes but the eye perceives things differently than the ear it needs a visual cue to establish tone and meter and purpose
Sorry. Rather:
Commas and periods (and the offhand, intimate entre-nous of the parenthetical insert) are vestiges of an old way of writing, yes. But the eye perceives things differently than the ear; it needs a visual cue to establish tone and meter and purpose.
Funny thing. When I read your first paragraph I wasn't confused at all. The addition of the punctuation didn't really clarify anything for me. I guess I am already lost to the new mode. I have held so many online chats and not once do people punctuate when they type into their gmail chat that I seem to have lost the need for it.
And while punctuation will have a place in writing still I see no reason not to change how it is used and when. That's the beauty of English we make of it what we want, and to heck with everyone else.
Jan '11
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
Latin didn't have punctuation. They had conjugation.
There's a moral in there somewhere.
May '10
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
Valiuth
And while punctuation will have a place in writing still I see no reason not to change how it is used and when.
Let's start by putting the period outside the quotation mark. A period's purpose is supposedly to mark the end of a sentence, afterall.
Yes, "afterall" should be one word, like "anymore".
And let's end the nonsensical rule of clogging acronyms with periods. Everyone knows not to pronounce "USA" like Jar-Jar Binks saying "user".
Feb '12
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
KC- That's all so much conjecture.. But I congratulate your conjugation.
Feb '12
Re: The Art Of Written Communication Is Not Dead, It's Just Resting
Valiuth-
Let's start by putting the period outside the quotation mark. A period's purpose is supposedly to mark the end of a sentence, afterall.
Yes, "afterall" should be one word, like "anymore".
I don't think so. And 'afterall" I'm sure about either. After all.