ABSTRACT
An essay such as this demonstrates the cleavage between the written and the spoken word within our culture. When one is conversing, or even formally speaking, there are available mechanisms—a rising inflection, an inquiring attitude, a few lightening "asides" which can introduce into the communicative situation a feeling of tentativeness of opinion without a corresponding feeling of carelessness of preparation. An essay seems to be different. How can you write tentatively? When it is set down before you it seems exactly that—set. The commitment of print is intimidating, especially in an age which is experiencing a renaissance of the spoken word. 1 Our culture's past reliance, indeed over-reliance, on written forms of communication has nurtured a contemporary reaction against print, an increasing reluctance to accept the authority of the printed word and a concomitant demand for person-to-person spoken confrontation. Residual in the spoken word is a qualitatively different authority than that which is present in the written word. Whereas the spoken word derives its authority from the presence of dialog, from spontaneity and naturalness, from reinforcement of nonverbal speaker attributes (simultaneity), from participation, and from the responsible testimony of the presence of the speaker, the written word's authority depends on monolog, artificiality, sequentiality, alienation, and dependency. 2
