McLuhan’s “The Medium is the Massage” introduces the idea that “until writing was invented, men lived in acoustic place” (48) really caught my interest. As he discusses the many things that have developed over time because of writing, it makes me think about the many inventions that we have today and what they could possibly all link back to. Could they all link back to the same thing? Could that thing be writing?
You see, it’s interesting because I think they can. Off of the top of my head, I think of computers, ice cream, and public transportation in New York City (I guess that shows what’s on my mind lately haha). When I think about each of these things individually, I trace back to where and how they possibly could have started, and I trace them all back to writing, or at least some form of it. Computers, for example, are made up of code, at least internally. If it weren’t for writing, how would code even exist? And with ice cream, you have to pay for ice cream at the store, so how do numbers exist? Surely, they were invented with a language, which came from writing. With ice cream you, just as anything else that involves cooking, you have to measure out all of the right ingredients…and you know where I’m going with that one. For public transportation, the mechanics behind it all involves numbers and blueprints, all made up of writing, as well as train schedules and train station names. We are surrounded by things that would not be possible if it weren’t for writing.
And maybe this sounds dumb to you reading it right now, but I’ve never thought about writing in that aspect. I’ve always thought of writing as something I needed to do in school, or to do to get information conveyed to others. It really changes your perspective. And it makes me think about how writing has affected the art work. Not necessarily journalism, which requires writing of course, but about painting and drawing and acting and photography, and all of the other mediums I didn’t list. Writing is a basic core of many of the things we have and express today, but it isn’t, in my eyes, given the credit it deserves.
