Point to ponder
Nov. 13th, 2007 10:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
It is a truth universally acknowledged that no-one will ever be in need of a writer.
Discuss, taking care to distinguish between "need" as we might externally perceive it from our civilised standpoint, and need as it would appear to people whose primary concern is survival.
Discuss, taking care to distinguish between "need" as we might externally perceive it from our civilised standpoint, and need as it would appear to people whose primary concern is survival.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-13 06:31 pm (UTC)So non-literate people are not "higher life forms"? I agree that higher life forms do generally need some form of non-work activity to keep sane, but people through millenia have managed to do that without books or writing. People were making music and telling stories long before either was written down.
Yes, a complex social structure is easier to manage if things are able to be kept in permanent form, and information is easier to spread. But that doesn't necessarily mean writing (unless you also define visual and auditory arts as writing). Indeed, many parts of current society seem to be slipping away from the written form as other forms of communication and storage of information become easier and cheaper.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-13 06:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-13 07:01 pm (UTC)If the point is pure survival, you can survive without any artistic stimulation. It may make for a short and uncomfortable existence if previously exposed, but it is possible.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-13 08:09 pm (UTC)Access by the general population to written fiction, or to written materials at all, is a very recent thing. For most of the time it has been the province of the rich and those they favour. And for much of the world this is still true.