O dear. an angry one
I am Jean-Paul Sartre and his son
On Fri, 30 Mar 2001, Matthew Francis wrote:
> Yes, and I've even heard it suggested that walking comes before driving.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Matthew
> (non-driver - so-called)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: chris jones <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 30 March 2001 04:22
> Subject: Re: STIMULUS: THE READER
>
>
> Hiya
> I have a huge problem with saying speech comes first and then comes writing.
> Does this mean that writing only came to Australia with the English
> invasion?
> That the people that were always here in this land did not have writing
> before the invasion? That people who are so called illiterate cannot write?
>
> Where does writing begin and reading end? Where does speech end and writing
> begin? Why is speech given a primacy from which is developed writing? The
> idea that speech comes first and is distinct from writing is an imperialist
> idea and buys into the very structures of racism in the history of Western
> thought and theories of language. In this way writing is said to be more
> valuable then speech, even if an attempt is made to reverse the values,
> since
> such an attempt actually admits that writing is more important then speech
> in
> this way of thinking. So people who are claimed to be illiterate are said to
> be lacking something, are lesser people, even if the claim is made that they
> can participate by using speech in laguage. This is still a discriminatory
> judgement, even if such a judgement is not intended as such. I have taught
> creative writing to so-called illiterate people... the very term illiterate
> is a misnomer laden with discriminatory judgements, I find.
>
> Sorry, but I had to disagree... hope you don't mind this style of
> intervention which is not meant as nasty, but a contribution to a politcal
> debate on language.
>
> best wishes
>
> Chris Jones.
> ps
>
> On Friday 30 March 2001 09:09, you wrote:
> > >Writing precedes speech a la Vico.
> >
> > No it doesn't. We all speak first. And what about illiterates? Are
> > they simply disallowed participation in human language because they can't
> > write?
> >
> > A
>
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