I have a bookmark made by the band Sleepytime Gorilla Museum that was sneakily tucked into my merch haul last time I saw them live, and it has a quote on it that I will need to wait until I get home to properly remember, and I also want to do more diligence to figure out if it is an actual quote. At the top it says “A WARNING ABOUT READING”, and the quote says something like:
Beware the written language, man was never destined to record their every thought. How will we continue to remember ourselves when we are now able to cast our essence into this new medium, to remove the memories from ourselves so that we are cast into perpetual forgetfulness?
-Allegedly some ancient guy from the dawn of books
swagmoney@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
holy smokes it’s been a while since i heard someone mention sleepytime gorilla museum
Bags@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Still doin’ their thing, they released a new album last year! They went on a small new-album tour and that’s when I was able to catch their show.
I found the source of the quote on the bookmark, and it was a quote by Plato out of Phaedrus so it definitely is real lol. It’s somewhat different on the bookmark, but depending on what translation you look at the quote will probably be slightly different anyway. It’s sections 274e to 275b
But when he came to writing, Theuth said, “This
branch of learning, O King, will make the Egyptians wiser and give them better memories,
for I have discovered an elixir of both memory and wisdom.” The king replied, “Oh most
ingenious Theuth, one man is able to invent these skills, but a different person is capable
of judging their benefit or harm to those who will use them. And you, as the father of writing,
on account of your positive attitude, are now saying that it does the opposite of what
it is able to do. This subject will engender forgetfulness in the souls of those who learn it,
for they will not make use of memory. Because of their faith in writing, they will be
reminded externally by means of unfamiliar marks, and not from within themselves by
means of themselves. So, you have discovered an elixir not of memory but of reminding.
You will provide the students with a semblance of wisdom, not true wisdom. For having
heard a great deal without any teaching they will seem to be extremely knowledgeable,
when for the most part they are ignorant, and are difficult people to be with because they
have attained a seeming wisdom without being wise.”