401 CHRONICLESnit or not, is our slavery, and ournchildren’s.nAlthough it’s impolitic to forbid anteenager to do something, if the subjectncomes up again we’ll tell ourndaughter that if she wants to participate,nshe’ll have to be able to tell usnwhat World War II was all about, andnwhy Hiroshima and Nagasaki werenbombed, and, realistically, what shenhopes to accomplish with her lantern.nShe’ll also have to prove to us that shenknows what “manipulation” means,nand knows how to prevent it beingndone to her. And we’ll ask her tonresearch how the Peace Coalition feelsnabout abortion (she thinks it’s terrible)nand the gulag (she’s never heard of it),nsince they claim to care about humannlife. The way I see it, either way we’venwon — at least until the next timenPeace Coalition members glide intonher classroom and circle around, smilingnand showing their teeth.nJane Greer edits Plains PoetrynJournal.nREVISIONSnRediscovering the WordnBooks will never look quite the samento anyone who reads ABC: ThenAlphabetization of the PopularnMind (San Francisco: North PointnPress; 166 pp.; $16.95) by IvannIllich and Barry Sanders. In a fewnpages, the authors explore the greatncultural gulf that divides modernnmen, “children of the book,” fromnearlier societies in which readingnand writing either had not beenndiscovered or were restricted to annelite.nIn speech, language passes directlynfrom speaker to auditor, its shadesnof meaning conveyed in tone, accent,nand rhythm, often reinforcednby facial expression and gestures. Inncontrast, the printed word presupposesngreater psychological distancenbetween writer and reader. Writingnpermits fuller development of logicalnargument and more carefullynwrought poetic tropes; yet, a culturenthat relies heavily on the printednword can also lose the sincerity,nintegrity, and spontaneity of speech.nLetter From thenLower Rightnby John Shelton ReednToo Greedy to HatenBack in the spring there was a lot ofnhoo-rah in northern Virginia about anplan to build a shopping mall on part ofnthe battlefield at Manassas (“Bull Run”nto Yankees). At first, some of us downnhere suspected a federal plot to obliteratenthe reminders of two humiliatingndefeats, but it turned out to be just thenusual crowd of developers pursuing theneconomic logic that seems to lead inexorablynto the paving of any open spacenclose to a major metropolitan area.nNow, there’s something to be said fornmoney-making as a goal. I’ll say it in anminute. In any case, it does seemnpointless to expect investors to get allnmisty-eyed about a piece of land theynbought in good faith and pay taxes on,njust because some soldiers died there anlong time ago. But let’s not forget thatnAlthough no enemies of writing,nIllich and Sanders understand itsnliabilities. Recognizing how poetrynand song live in the collective memorynof prehistoric peoples, theynwarn of the risks of turning printednlanguage into merely a commercialncommodity or a political weapon.nFollowing Plato, they perceive thatnwriting can weaken the memory.nIndeed writing can even transformnthe character of memory, as it losesnthe integrative power of reflectivenimagination and becomes merely anstorehouse of facts and formulae.nAs Illich and Sanders trace thenhistory of writing — from the appearancenof the North Semitic alphabetnup to our own wordprocessornage —they focus particularlynon the late medieval era, whennmore widespread reliance on writingn”ushered in a new type ofnsociety.” The moral implications ofnthis shift may be seen in the differingnattitudes toward vows. In placenof traditional oral oaths, usually pronouncednwith ceremonial gestures,nparchment obligations acquired annnthere are other ways to view life thannthrough the cash nexus. Confederatenpropagandists used to argue that’s whatnthose soldiers were fighting about.nIt may be that we in the South havennow rejoined the Union in that respect.nBack in the countercultural 60’s, DavidnRiesman observed that the only studentsnhe had at Harvard who wanted tonmake a lot of money were Catholics andnSoutherners. And survey researchnshows no appreciable difference in cupiditynbetween Southerners and othernAmericans. But in the past some Southernersnat least affected to scorn thenvalues of tradesmen.nConsider, for instance. Colonel RobertnToombs of Washington, Ceorgia.nColonel Toombs was one of the greatnunreconstructed rebels. When someonenmet him at the Washington telegraphnoffice during the Chicago firenand asked the latest news, he repliednthat the firefighters were battling thenconflagration heroically, but the windnwas on our side. To my mind, the bestnToombs story concerns the time somennew importance in the 12th andn13th centuries. “Trust shifted fromnthe given word to a sealedndocument,” foreshadowing a modernnlegalism which demands thatnevery transaction be put “in writing.”nThe appearance of writtenngrammars further denigrated thenvernacular, as literate scholars begannto impose artificial standards uponnlanguage, so defining a new set ofnsocial shibboleths.nAs the enforcer of social distinctions,nwriting effected a new selfconsciousnessnon the poet, whonceased to be the nameless Skald,npublic weaver of shared stories ofnthe tribe — as in Beowulf or Wanderer.nAs early as Chaucer, thencreative writer occupied a newlynambiguous role, exercising his exceptionalnpersonal talents in privatento produce in the enduring pages ofnliterature an imaginative world thatnoffered itself as an alternative to thenworld created by God and occupiednby the unlettered masses.nAs the printing press and publicneducation brought literacy to then