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Technology In Aeolus

Decent Essays

The subject matter of Eric D. Smith’s essay is the examination of the recording of Aeolus in relation to Platonic and post-Heideggerian concepts of technology. He suggests that Ulysses self-consciously highlights how the ways of authority and modern technology are divided in a manner that both anticipates and clears Derrida’s response to Heidegger and Plato. The key to understand Joyce’s motivations for his decision to record is acquiring an understanding of Joyce’s relationship to the question of modern technology in general. More specifically, Smith searches for answers to questions such as ’Why use ‘Aeolus’?’, ‘What is the connection between the concept of modern technology and Joyce’s incorporation of fragmentation of authority as a central …show more content…

The definition of writing (and to some extend techne, which denotes craftsmanship or art, in general) according to the traditional western philosophy says that it is a dangerous supplement to the original memory. The techne of writing presents a direct threat to stability of western epistemology or knowledge and therefore is dangerous and unnatural. In present day this is represented in how the Koran is read. The Koran doesn’t know to whom to speak and to whom not. When it’s ill-treated and unfairly abused, it always needs its father to help it, since it isn’t able to defend itself by itself. But there is no-one to defend it, so there are various readings that may result in extremists …show more content…

There is a realization that human memory is itself a technology. Memories are not a product of an original moment but rather a complex network of mnemotechnic reproductions in which each element authorizes the recollection. Aeolus represents the technological as indistinguishable from the natural. In the article Smith states: “As technology gradually replaces the human the privileged role of author becomes less and less necessary and more difficult to fix.” (464) Yet one can ask himself whether we, then, don’t give too much credit to technology or machines while we actually should admire the human inventor? The irony of selecting a recorder to authorize is itself an imperfect recreation of a recreation of a speech even that can never be legitimately authorized.

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