Francesco Guardi's Venice Viewed from the Bacino

IN ITS MISSION STATEMENT, the Center for Literate Values, which was recently vandalized by a computer hacker, states:

The literate individual is vanishing. We who teach have seen with our own eyes the decline of analytical finesse and expressiveness in our composition classes over the past two or three decades. We who have children have struggled to keep their moral acumen focused upon the small, persistent inner voice of conscience rather than upon what celebrities are doing or what passes for “cool” on Facebook. All of us have converged upon a basic realization, whether persuaded of it by theory or driven to it by hard experience: i.e., that the West has entered a post-literate stage.

This does not mean that people no longer read: not exactly, or not yet. It more often means, rather, that reading has become ancillary to electronic technology, and that the quality of literature is largely dictated by that technology. “Self help” manuals and biographies about “stars” were elbowing serious writing off the charts years ago. Now even non-fiction monographs on major political issues inanely joke about “foreign-sounding” names or attempt silly puns. Fiction is highly imitative of electronic narrative: that is, it displays shallow characters, formulaic dialogue, and plots where physical action trumps psychological depth. When our students and children do any writing of their own, they misspell (“lite” for “light”), they spout stale clichés (“you were there for me”), they support their views with peer-group prejudice rather than objectively valid reasons (“people should never judge people’s sex lives”), and they lurch impulsively from one point to another rather than building a logical chain (“it makes me mad that some people…”). In fact, the constant intrusion of “I” and “me” into this writing is specific and convincing evidence that our children can no longer sort personal mood (or even downright moodiness) from arguments which reach out to other intelligences and lead them to common ground.

The literate individual, like French essayist Michel de Montaigne, discovers humanity by examining himself: the post-literate “tribal individual” constructs a fragile self from surrounding peers and then dehumanizes anyone who does not wear the group’s paint and feathers.

Please follow and like us: