QC

@Malcolm_Ocean persuaded me to try playing around with Twitter, so: hello. Here is a question I have, crudely put, tongue moderately in cheek: is writing bad? Should we, perhaps, stop doing it?

Iain McGilchrist's @divided_brain has an absolutely fascinating bit about the evolution of language which suggests that it went in this order: first there was music. Then there was poetry. Then there was prose. Music is the *primordial* language.

I'd say prose/writing wins on density of information (e.g. symbols, formulas) and this is apparently what we as a society have chosen to prioritize, or won out.

There is so much information available in listening to a person sing a single word - it just isn't very *legible*. Which is to say, it's hard to *write down* = hard for the left hemisphere, bureaucracy, capitalism, etc. to process (more @divided_brain goodness).

I think that's certainly true - do you know of any stories where song is the main form of communication? written in prose, ofc Also: opera - manifests itself in melodrama & the extremes of emotion. Perhaps we'd be a more empathetic species if our communication was simply song?

Musicals! Esp. ones that are fully sung through. @HamiltonMusical's a fantastic example. As far as books, @PatrickRothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicle is extremely concerned with song, and arguably the most important acts of communication in it are songs.

Love them both :) Though I would argue that PR's KC only points to Song as a more suitable medium for "sleeping mind" (tho also used cleverly for "waking mind" memorization), but the vast majority of that world and its functionality are built on and exist in "waking mind"/prose