While they're not, strictly speaking, about technical writing, Plato's thoughts should strike fear into the hearts of all of us who try to communicate for a living:
Campbell Creative Services » Thought for the day: Socrates on Writing
Socrates. He would be a very simple person… who should leave in writing or receive in writing any art under the idea that the written word would be intelligible or certain; or who deemed that writing was at all better than knowledge and recollection of the same matters?
Phaedrus. That is most true.
Socrates. I cannot help feeling, Phaedrus, that writing is unfortunately like painting; for the creations of the painter have the attitude of life, and yet if you ask them a question they preserve a solemn silence.
(Plato, Phaedrus - translated by B. Jowett)
No comments:
Post a Comment