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As Walter J. Ong points out there can be no literacy without orality; however, that is not the case with orality without literacy. The "biases" of literate people regarding oral cultures is surprising to me.
Never have I thought "how does someone memorize something without writing it down first" because that action is so commonplace to me. However, Ong explains that we as a literate culture assume that those who have no written language memorize things in the same way.
When I give a speech, I write it out and then memorize it. My speech stays consistent throughout, unless a panic and start babbling. However, in an oral culture, a speech or a story isn't "memorized." There is no way to remember word for word what the person said to you. And the emphasis you put on certain aspects of the story won't be the same the next time you tell it.
It is interesting to see how many of Ong's explainations can be reverted back to Milman Parry's work with Homer's Iliad. Parry explains that the Iliad was basically metrical formulas strung together and could be "remembered" through those formulas. By emphasizing these point, Ong further establishes the fact that oral cultures work harder to memorize and retain information. That is much different than writing something down and then memorizing the passage word for word.
Are you really learning something when reciting verbatim as compared to rehearing and knowing a story to retell it?
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