Comparing Reading to Writing in the Light of Ong’s Views on Restructuring Consciousness and Their Importance in the Academic Setting Today

According to Walter J. Ong, functionally literate human beings are beings whose thought processes grow out of powers structured by the “technology of writing” (p.77). But, what is the definition of this “technology of writing,”-- Is it “the technology which has shaped and powered the intellectual activity of modern man,” (p. 82) as Ong says? It is evident today that writing is not the only advantage that helped humanity’s transition from illiteracy to literacy. Whatever is written must be read. If anything, this passage from darkness to light should be equally attributed to reading as it is attributed to writing. Had it not been for certain books, our views on serious social issues would have remained outdated. Active reading, not to be mistaken with passive reading, is crucial for the inspiration of writers. It communicates ideas and styles, and integrates logic and rebuttal. If writing indeed heightens consciousness by fostering abstract, analytical thinking, then reading has the same effects on consciousness, because the processes the brain goes through are similar.

When Anne Frank wrote the Diary of a Young Girl, she shared the details of her life in Holland during the Nazi invasion, and, by doing so, reminded her readers of the cruelty of racial persecution. When Mary Wollstonecraft wrote a Vindication of the Rights of Women, she stood up against the privileged male population, and, by doing so, empowered women to demand their right to equal rights and education. Although these writers are long gone, their active readers have managed to carry on delivering their messages and even adding up to them according to what is appropriate in this day and time. Ong writes, “More than any other single invention, writing has transformed human consciousness” (p. 77). But, what about reading? Can the huge role it played, and still plays, in transforming our views on racism, feminism and education be dwarfed by the, however important, detached role of writing? In many ways, writing and reading have a lot in common.

The creative process can be thought of in two reverse directions. For example, in order to create new material, writers will output their already existing thoughts and feelings to the surroundings, and input the responses they receive into the script manufactory, that is their brains, which then would produce the wholesome comprehension of the individual and universe Ong praises so much. Active readers, on the other hand, input the findings of writers into the same script manufactory, because they are in their thoughts and surroundings, then reflect upon them, and output new discoveries regarding their identities and situations. The writer is not the only benefactor from the creative process; active readers too can reach a fuller realization of their potentials. According to United Kingdom’s Department of Education, statistics prove the importance of reading for pleasure on both educational purposes as well as personal development. In the classroom, students will gain new attitudes towards learning, which can threaten the authority of the professor. If teachers want to keep their jobs, they must facilitate all resources at hand and keep an open mind for new takes on education.

Speaking from experience, as a student writer, I have found that taking time to read the opinions of other writers and explore their approaches to different topics can be eye-opening. As the reader, I am introduced to new ideas and presented with the chance to view objectively and ask questions. In Ong’s words, “Alienation from a natural milieu can be good for us and indeed is in many ways essential for full human life. To live and to understand fully, we need not only proximity but also distance” (p. 81). In this light, we understand that the value of what we obtain from writing lays in the distance and isolation from the surroundings. There is an interesting kind of alienation that comes hand in hand with reading-- When you are alone with a book, you are given the space to interpret the words however you would like, and if you try hard enough you can write another book that is even more complex and extensive than the one you are reading.  This can be both exciting and frightening for a student. It puts them in charge of making use of the knowledge they gain. Students will want to channel their newly-gained information to create new information, and, as I did, will want to write. This feeling, unless dealt with properly, can be very unhealthy and self-destructive for a student.

The connection between the active mind and the sustenance of a person’s happiness and realization of the universe should overcome the obstacles this confusion creates for a scholar. This statement can be easily put to the test. In a simple experiment, the subject, that is myself, will record changes in my position towards reading, after employing it to prolong my attention span and improving my creative thinking abilities. I have set to read and write more every day. Between college classes and my time off, I have been reading fiction and nonfiction in two languages. I have also been writing responses to my readings, with my diaries and reflections. One of the benefits that I have noticed is that during Math lectures, I am more alert and focused. This is new to me. Comparing my observation skills from two weeks ago and now, as I am participating in this experiment, is like comparing an addict’s mind when they are on drugs and when they are clean. My mind has become clearer, and I’m not overwhelmed by daily tasks. This organization should reflect positively on my career as a student and bring me new opportunities. Reading has played an important role in this quick transformation, and I expect more promising results if I continue. I recommend for this experiment to be done on a bigger scale, and be turned into a field-study that includes students from different backgrounds than mine. A such study can go in-depth into the effects active reading has on consciousness. By looking into how it help the mind be sharp and active during class, we can notice the patterns that occur in a student’s brain.

In the same way Ong argues that a specific kind of writing, the kind that powers intellectual activity, helps our minds become analytically active, it can be argued that active reading has the same effects on the human brain. Motivating and mind-stimulating reading and writing are essential for personal and communal growth. However, this brings up a new question-- If students take breaks from writing and reading, do their minds grow numb? Our findings can be reassuring. They tell us that wherever a person’s mentally is, what they know and what they can do could be built on. Whether it is dropping-out for an illness or a family emergency, or just low self -esteem, a student can catch up with their schoolwork. With determination everyone can reach a higher level of intellectuality and production. Professors can teach their students how to write and they can read to them, but unless students write and read for themselves their hopes and dreams will not materialize. As educators, it is our responsibility to reconsider our understanding of our jobs, and test new methods that affirm our messages in this age of change. From this comparison, we learn that there is no place for obsoletes. What was right in the time of Plato, is not right in the time of Ong, and is not necessarily right in ours.

Defeating Procrastination

Contrary to popular belief, stalling and holding off assignments is not exclusively a consequence of carelessness and sluggishness. Today, defective educational systems, in schools and universities much the same, overload students with obligations and responsibilities, with much disregard to the fact that academia is not the focal point of every person’s life. However, procrastination is still an issue that must be addressed within the learners’ community; it is a modern day plague, a reason for us to put our dreams on hold, and a gap between intention and action that is keeping us from making the world a better place.

The first step on the road of defeating procrastination is recognizing the problem, only when you do that will you be able to make a plan, implement it, and review your work, all before the deadline is due. Whether you tend to linger on the grounds that you work better under pressure, or simply because you are just too lazy, it is essential to understand whatever it is that is keeping you from submitting your work on time. For example, by delaying a task, such as homework, students avoid the natural fear of being under evaluation, and so they develop a self-defense mechanism against the high pressure for good grades.

Another crucial key point, that is often overlooked, is that for one to overcome procrastination, one must be persistent, and enduring. You must prioritize your work, manage your time, concentrate, and be more engaged. Break big tasks down, avoid perfectionism, and remember that it’s better to do something than do nothing at all. Find motivation, turn distractions into rewards, and do things that you enjoy. Ask for help whenever you’re stuck, and never give up. Be realistic, set reasonable goals, take it easy, and do not make a huge list of “things to do”, nor schedule every minute of your day. Put the anxiety, stress, fatigue, disappointment, and ennui of the past in the past - no ifs, ands, or buts.

Next year, you may wish you had begun today. Recognize, reorganize, and remember who you were, who you are, and who you want to one day become. Stay on top of everything and believe in your abilities.

"This Shore" by Tom Milsom

A Theme Over-Analysis - Writing Response to Literature

A poem that is as smart as it is catchy, Tom Milsom's This Shore, aims to convey that each stench, phoneme, light, and concrete matter that is related to the shore, surrounding New York, captures the true essence of the city's beguiling, seductive, and shadowy complexion. This free verse reflects an emotion many poets alongside Milsom share, even the great William Shakespeare himself when he says, in Romeo and Juliet, “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.”³ By describing the sea as boundless, deep, and infinite, its significance is demonstrated. So, when our modern day heartthrob of a poet brings up this emotion of cherishment and respect regarding the ocean and the shore, without it being too obvious, he succeeds in delivering a unique message, and 100% hits home. 

In a style that's modest and straightforward, we have the first stanza, as if the shore is a symbol of the lives of the New Yorkers, Tom says that it has a rhythm, a systematic arrangement of sounds, a sequence, a broken pulse, which rests with the waves that reach the sand. The sequence of sounds is the repeated stories of the people, and the broken pulse is caused by the monotonous sulk and sumptuousness of history. After that, a full image of the setting begins forming in the minds of the readers, as now they can hear the waves, the dings, and hum, which are imitations that mimic usual phonemes and sounds heard throughout a usual day in NYC. The last half of the first stanza carries a superb meaning of hope. The untold secrets, and suffocation hidden deep within the lungs of the men and women, as crude and difficult to handle as they might be, "will pass"⁴, because "shore is forever"⁴, the people are forever lasting, and no matter what, they will eventually win. We will always hear the waves.

Wanting to complete the sketch he began drawing  in the first stanza, our poet begins to depict an image of a boatyard. He mentions the rustiness of the ships in the light. He even mentions its color, "orange"⁴, a color with healing powers that reminds the readers of endurance. In the ninth line, Tom brings up "wet paint"⁴, he says that it's "like brick in this city"⁴, and by that he emphasizes its importance.. Brick is always there, just like the paint on the new structures that are build every day. After that, he mentions that "the sky is made of air"⁴, and "the doors are made of wood"⁴, which might sound as the most useless given facts that can ever be mentioned in any piece of creative writing, but not here, hence he finishes his second stanza by stating that "the heads are made of paint"⁴. Paint, itself, to the readers is still mystic, and enigmatic, a problem that won't last long as they move to the third stanza.

Modesty and straightforwardness slip away further, as Milsom foreshadows more and more as the poem goes on.. He compares the water of East River to paint in the third stanza. It reflects the lights from its neighboring sidewalk every night, and let's it wave, as if it was a huge salty bullet that miraculously shimmers.. He carries on portraying the land through its history, in the fourth stanza, where he tells the readers that it's strongly shaking with angry footsteps that are strong, and that even the rumblings of the city's inhabitants play a role in keeping it going, surviving, no matter what. With all that he said, to this point, he does not seem to describe what he's talking about so much as he seems to simply create it in another medium. For instance, from the stanzas three to five, he's not describing the city. The fifth stanza is the poet's way of representing the strikingly beautiful and peculiar simplicity which everything about this city has. He is capturing its rhythm, visually, in music. Also, he continues stressing on the vivacity that this city has, and how it compresses all races, thousands of millions of people, into a small island, and adds music in the ornamented background just like splendor poetry.

To be frank, everything in New York is a photograph. All the things that are supposed to be dirty or rough or unrefined are the most beautiful things. It's imperfections make it beautiful in a way only New York can be. And because of that, in the last twelve lines, Tom urges the readers to "paint this city black"⁴, and shout loudly amongst the hiss, the hum, and Manhattan's smoke and the hardships. In closing, he states that the suffocation and troubles shall never disturb the peace and harmony of the land for, in Tom's own words, "the city sleeps surrounded by the shore"⁴.

In retrospect, Milsom expresses the life and vivacity of NYC as a giant metaphor of the ocean which surrounds it. Although he anthropomorphizes the city, he perfectly and magnificently depersonalizes it. It is, indeed, indifferent, neither happy nor sad, yet a place constant in its affirmation of aliveness. As E.B. White says “New York provides not only a continuing excitation but also a spectacle that is continuing.”⁵

Bibliography

1.      MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Fall on Your Knees. Simon and Schuster, 1997.

2.      Sandburg, Carl. "Chicago." Poetry Magazine. March, 1914.

3.      Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. United Kingdom. Penguin Classics, 2005.

4.  Tom Milsom, Tom Milsom. "This Shore" July 31, 2010. Hexachordal's Official Website. www.tommilsom.com/this-shore-1538.html 13 May 2013.

5.       White, E.B. Here is New York. Little Bookroom, 2000.

An Eye for an Eye

The Major Facts About Hammurabi’s Code

     Law is one of societies most basic institutions, and one of the most necessary. While it establishes a person's rights and obligations, law also sets penalties for those who violate its rules. And although specific laws change over time, most people agree that justice is one of law's most guiding principals.

     Life without law would be chaotic, ordinary people wouldn't have protection from their rulers, and righteousness and order would be lost in the community. Being that, order must be kept, and a uniform set of laws is necessary with the rise of cities. For instance, one of the earliest known attempts to institutionalize law occurred in ancient Mesopotamia, a region between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which is where Iraq is today.

     Being that very few legal texts from the Sumerian period have been found, most of what we know comes from what archaeologists have discovered in the Persian city of Susa, in the early 20th century. And according to chronology, an ancient king, Hammurabi, who was the sixth leader to rule over Babylon from 1792 B.C. to 1750 B.C, was the first person to ever write down a set of rules, that are well preserved, on a human-sized stone stele. At the beginning of his reign, Mesopotamia was divided into many city-states, all with their own pattern of shifting rules, but Hammurabi eventually brought the entire region under his control. He collected laws from the various city- states, and wrote down a set of codes, which are organized laws, that soon governed the entire area. And in that way all people became accustomed with rules consequences.

     Hammurabi's written codes are considered to be one of the oldest deciphered ancient Sumerian writings of significant length in the world. They had the most important role in allowing law to become a matter of public knowledge, and so they helped advance the rule of law in society. His code dealt with issues of taxes and trade, marriage and divorce, and theft and murder. They also settled complex conflicts about labor, property, family and adopting children, practicing medicine, hiring wagons or boats, and even controlling dangerous wild animals. To emphasize, the code says " if a sergeant preforms a major operation with a knife on a citizen, and it causes the death of that citizen, the sergeant's hand should be cut off". Additionally, Hammurabi assigned specific punishments to fit specific crimes. Each and every one of these 282 laws or articles was based on being "fair".

     The old testament's first law is meant to reflex Hammurabi's approach; an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. Hence, he believed that the punishment should fit the crime. So, if one steals, one's hand shall be cut off, if one mistakenly waters one's neighbor's crops, resulting in said crops being ruined, one must pay for compensation, and of course, if one kidnap's another's son, one is sentenced to execution. Even if one commits a crime without realizing, or without meaning too as in by accident, it didn't matter to Hammurabi; you do the crime, you do the time.

     Sadly, the code wasn't equal for everyone, and thepunishments related to social classes. Therefore, richer and more powerful people were able to get away with a lot more. And if one commits a crime against a rich or powerful person, one's punishment would be much harsher. In other words, the higher the class of the victim, the harsher the punishment is.

     Hammurabi's empire eventually fell apart, but he's credited with establishing justice in the land. Amazingly, the idea of codified law was just beginning. Thus, the codification movement reached its peak under the French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte, after he crowned himself emperor in 1804. Napoleon wanted to bring a new order to France by establishing a new constitution; he restricted France's legal systems into a new unified collection of laws, known as the Napoleonic Code. Like any other great military leader, Napoleon soon conquered most of Europe. Just as Hammurabi unified laws across Mesopotamia, Napoleon's ideas and reforms spread across Europe. He established new constitutions in the counties he conquered, and so the Napoleonic code helped modernize an entire continent.

     All in all, as civilizations evolve, they leave behind specific rules and laws that are established by past leaders and governments, what survives is the quest for law, order, and justice.

References

* Boston: Prentice Hall (2008, p 44-45). History of Our World: The Early Ages.
* All Histories (Sep 29, 2009). Turning Points in History - Hammurabi's Code of Laws.
* CCMS Cougar cast (Nov 22, 2010). Hammurabi's Code.
* Crash Course (Feb 09, 2012). Mesopotamia: Crash Course World History #3
* Ashraf Ezzat (Jul 30, 2012). Hammurabi's code of law & the Israelite connection.

There's Nothing to Fear

           For the love of everything holy, turn your back on fear.. Watch out for the prodigious monsters of fear, they will find cuts on your body, crawl beneath your skin, and grow inside you.

           Notably, the disdainful idea of fright lives amongst us, and travels through our veins. Also, as inscrutable as it may be, we can never disregard nor overlook its consternating effects. Especially that it's easy to conjecture and understand the risks which rest behind frightfulness itself to stand threatening the lives of whomever suffers with the terrors of what they know and do not know.

           President John F. Kennedy once said; "change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future", and from his eminent words we deduce some of the many depraved consequences of submitting to dreadful horrors; such as giving up the precious moments that we have on this earth in exchange of monotonous everlasting existences and sanctuaries in the dim stringent abyss. 

           Misfortunes, which we're all destined to face, are transient. Battles of sorrow might be ornery, but they're surely not interminable. And our undying love of survival shall always precipitate redolently in imposing impressive glimmering thoughts that can lead us to an electrified life style, the likes of which we, in our current position, don't dare to dream of. And in the same time, outrageous points of view and congenial concepts will be introduced to us along the way, and every new day will bring us benevolence and happiness that in the end will leave us not only gob-smacked, but also will sweep us off our feet!