response, the owl has flown

In, “The Own Has Flown” by Sven Birkerts, the author asserts the importance of three intellectual resources that have been all but extinguished by modern culture. The importance of depth, wisdom, and resonance is profound. For, as Birkerts says:

As we now find ourselves at a cultural watershed—as the fundamental process of transmitting information is shifting from mechanical to circuit-driven, from page to screen—it may be time to ask how modifications in our way of reading my impinge upon our mental life. For how we receive information bears vitally on the ways we experience and interpret reality. (Birkerts 30)

He means that our ability to absorb and deeply comprehend knowledge is being suffocated by contemporary society, all the mass media and proliferation of trivial information that stifles our ability to devote time to fully understand every piece of knowledge we consume. This is very important to understanding the rest of the paper because here, Birkerts introduces the antagonism of modern live and later bestows the tools with which to cast its oppression of the mind. This realization of the opposition that every human being faces is very important to understanding the cry for deep thought throughout this paper. Birkerts impresses upon the reader the importance of understanding the threat of extinguishing complete comprehension of knowledge. The importance is simple, Birkerts believes that the hardest enemy to defeat is the invisible one; the threat of contemporary culture is one that people most ignore because it is ingrained in our perception of how the world works, thus, nothing seems out of place to us. Furthermore, because it is so deeply ingrained the psyche of the modern person, it becomes double hard to overcome it. Birkerts challenges the reader to rediscover old methods of thinking and cast off the burden of modern society and apotheosize into enlightenment.

Birkerts’ method of thinking is in complete contrast to one of the other works we have read so far, Clive Thompson’s “New Literacy” which suggests that modern society is elevating contemporary thought to new heights. Thompson argues that the cultural onslaught of the internet and other forms of mass media is allowing the modern man to discover new forms of communication and explore new thought processes such as argumentation and critical analysis. Thompson uses arguments based on the quantity of information that the modern student has access to, the antithesis of the suggestion of Birkerts. “The Owl Has Flown” definitely successfully contradicts Thompson’s arguments by convincingly explaining the process by which knowledge is absorbed, processed, and used to comprehend the world. The processes described in “The Owl Has Flown” are too complex for many people in this modern world. If one were to apply the intellectual approach of reading to Thompson’s methodology of academic advancement, the result would be a complete overload of information. Therefore, the conclusion can be reached that, if applied properly to the correct information, Birkerts’ thoughts can be used to acquire great depth, wisdom, and resonance.