[Lawtonfogle]

Books just leads to people to jump between books, bits of information and topics, which often devolves in distraction on many of the entertainment books out there. Oral tradition was so much better because you had to be focused on the expert who was giving the information and you had to learn it to a great enough detail you could recount the information yourself. With a book you can just jump to the interesting bits, but with oral tradition you have to stick around for the whole story.

And lest you think I am just being facetious, this was a legitimate criticism of writing back in the day.

>Writing, Phaedrus, has this strange quality, and is very like painting; for the creatures of painting stand like living beings, but if one asks them a question, they preserve a solemn silence. And so it is with written words; you might think they spoke as if they had intelligence, but if you question them, wishing to know about their sayings, they always say only one and the same thing. And every word, when once it is written, is bandied about, alike among those who understand and those who have no interest in it, and it knows not to whom to speak or not to speak; when ill-treated or unjustly reviled it always needs its father to help it; for it has no power to protect or help itself.

http://www.english.illinois.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/482...