406
PARTISAN REVIEW
T h e academ y must find th e means and the occas ions to break
thro ugh the almos t mechani cal expecta tion among students that to
learn is to imita te, to give back the evidence of the n ew literacy and no t
to ori gin a te or crea te. One canno t rely on the tradition of literacy.
Books and wrinen words h ave los t their aura of sanctity, of beauty, of
culture (in the bes t sense) for the young. The young have rarely felt th at
aura. Books and the wrinen word h ave the sta tus of machine too ls, of
lathes and power looms, of the turbine and the ch a in saw .
It
is no t
television or comic books or movies or radio -the medi a - whi ch have
turned the young away from langu age, books, and literacy in the o ld
sense. Ra ther the reasons are the uses to whi ch langu age, books, and
the printed word , the presumabl y "p rop er " use of langu age, have been
put. All the young have experienced a t home and in school has been
langu age in its new mode- as mere techni cal instrument. Their
response to language as a utilitarian in strument has been heighten ed,
and they h ave become deaf to it as a person al, express ive art.
In this wayan entire gen era tion h as become ali ena ted from true
literacy. Its alien ation accelera tes the erosion of the humanisti c charac–
ter o f the litera te wrinen and spo ken wo rd . The coll ege- bound genera–
tion has learn ed tha t mere tho ughtl ess aping of the instituti onal and
adult use o f language w ill suffice. T he young reveal the ex tent to
which we h ave los t the recognition of authenti c thinking and self–
express ion through words, and h ave become sati sfi ed with th e surro–
gate: apparent thought, apparent literacy. One reminder o f the distance
between authenti c literacy and the n ew literacy is th e frequent u se of
improprieti es.
The students now enro ll ed in Ameri can universities and coll eges
have turned to o ther medi a where perhaps th ere may be more hopeful ,
newer lan gu ages for the remaining small opportuniti es for wha t they
hope is fr ee exp eri en ce and express ion . T h ey have turn ed away from
book learning and the wrinen word and the institutions whi ch ap pear
dep endent on them . They an end school often onl y out o f comp ul sion ,
economi c and social ambition , and social h abit. Ironi call y, ow ing to
the commercial structure o f tel evision and film , as well as sound
recording, and their huge capital requirements, nonprint medi a force
the individual to become subj ect to centrali zed and po tent cu ltu ral
institutions . In relying on such medi a, young indi viduals become
dep endent on and h abitua ted to being merely consumers and not
autonomo us makers of express ion . Ironi call y, it is still written lan–
gu age, writing and reading, whi ch are the mos t po tent weapons for
peopl e in search of genuine indi viduality and the effecti ve pro tection
from external domination .
