As A Culture Moves From Orality To

A Definition Is The Start Of An Argument, Not The End Of One.

People Of A Television Culture Need “plain Language” Both Aurally And Visually, And Will Even Go So Far As To Require It In Some Circumstances By Law. The Gettysburg Address Would Probably Have Been Largely Incomprehensible To A 1985 Audience.

The Reader Must Come Armed , In A Serious State Of Intellectual Readiness. This Is Not Easy Because He Comes To The Text Alone. In Reading, One's Responses Are Isolated, One'sintellect Thrown Back On Its Own Resourses. To Be Confronted By The Cold Abstractions Of Printed Sentences Is To Look Upon Language Bare, Without The Assistance Of Either Beauty Or Community. Thus, Reading Is By Its Nature A Serious Business. It Is Also, Of Course, An Essentially Rational Activity.

Once You Have Learned To Ask Questions - Relevant And Appropriate And Substantial Questions - You Have Learned How To Learn And No One Can Keep You From Learning Whatever You Want Or Need To Know.

Voting Is The Next-to-last Refuge Of The Politically Impotent. The Last Refuge, Of Course, Is Giving Your Opinion To A Pollster.