a little more McLuhan (& maybe Pynchon)

[David Morris]

On Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 10:34 AM, alice wellintown
<alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:
>  I think McLuhan would say that, even on a gray scale, black & white are qualitatively different......like literate vs. pre-literate even on a gray scale
>
> He would say this.

And who wouldn't say this?  Without qualitative differences in a gray
scale, no images could be seen.  But the point of a scale is minute
differences.

>> And young 'uns learn most languages as abstract marks on a page. English say.....
>
> This is false. First, humans don't learn language but are born with language.

Language versus literacy?  I think we've jumped a step here.

>> The literate vs. pre-literate distinction is in anthropologists' work and is still used to the present....
>
> Like all technologies, printing brought positives and negatives. Surely there are things that pre-literate cultures have kept or developed that literate cultures have lost or neglected. We would all be better runners if we hadn't abandoned the cave and invented the wheel. But the health that would come with our endurance would not give us longer or better lives. We would die quite young.

AMEN!

But would our shorter lives have been more rich inside?  (joke)

>> No one has (yet) answered whether they think mostly in words....for example, I watch TV....I SEE the words they are speaking...mostly...not every, I'm sure....

> We think in grammar not words.

I'd like to see more of this "We think in grammar not words" theory.
If by this grammar you mean simple equations of logic revolving around
desire, fear, etc, then I think I understand your statement.  These
binaries are not our enemies (as GR might imply).  They are natural
first perceptions that we need to see more finely with practiced
observation.

On another level, individual humans are often predisposed toward
certain sensory inputs: visual and/or auditory primarily.  I am
personally very visually oriented.  Maybe Mark mistakes his
word-thinking from being primarily auditory.

David Morris