Jamie Graham—Ong Quote: The Ability to Forget

 “By contrast with literate societies, oral societies can be characterized as homeostatic (Goody and Watt 1968, pp. 31-4). That is to say, oral societies live very much in a present which keeps itself in equilibrium or homeostasis by sloughing off memories which no longer have present relevance.” (Ong, p. 46)

    This quote comes from Walter Ong’s Orality and Literacy. His observation that oral societies are homeostatic, living in a present that maintains equilibrium by “sloughing off memories which no longer have present relevance,” describes a necessity of the constraints of the mind. In an oral culture, every piece of critical information, like history, law, ritual, or genealogy, must be stored in the living memory of the people. This collective memory has a limited capacity. Therefore, the society must prioritize what it remembers. Information that no longer has immediate, practical relevance to the community’s survival or social structure becomes a useless burden. It is simply forgotten. This process of forgetting irrelevant knowledge allows resources to focus on the necessary knowledge for the present.


    On the other hand, literate societies change the role of memory and forgetting. Writing externalities memory onto the page. This technology allows literate cultures to retain anything and everything, even what is historically useless. While this ability to remember fuels things like research and technological progress, it also creates a constant negotiation with the past. We are forced to live under the full weight of recorded history. The homeostatic necessity of forgetting is replaced by cultural preservation. How does society navigate this preserved history without becoming paralyzed or overwhelmed by it?


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