Markdown Post on John Durham Peters’ The Marvelous Clouds

An analysis on the notable work by John Durham Peters.

In our COM 401-02: Ways of Seeing course we have spent time analyzing the work of John Durham Peters, more specifically we’ve spent time looking at excerpts from his book, “The Marvelous Clouds”. Through his work a key idea that Peters conveys is that media isn’t simply a means of sharing a message, but more often than not, it is the message. We’ve covered authors that look down upon media forms as they believe it replaces the need for imagination. On the other hand, John Durham Peters’ view is one that highlights and appreciates the value of media, more specifically writing, as it results in much needed documentation of history. In John Durham Peters’ “The Marvelous Clouds,” he mentions a concept of Jan Assmann, a German-born egyptologist. Peters writes, “Writing is often associated with lastingness. As Jan Assmann notes, the state[writing] is a mechanism not only for amassing power but also for assuring immortality. Its means include canons, temples, libraries, laws, and schools of reading. The cultural mnemotechnics favored by the Egyptians were temples, which served as memory books architecturally built in stone. The ancient Jews, in contrast, preferred sacred texts, which were much lighter and easier to carry,”(Peters, 287). This idea that “history” is synonymous with “immortality” is one that is never really conveyed when history and writing are brought up. Peters and Assmann present the idea that those who write are gaining power through preserving their work. This was especially prevalent with Egyptians in the stone age utilizing hieroglyphics. They created shared writings on cave walls to display to those to come and subconsciously became immortal. Peters then goes on to contrast these Egyptian mnemotechnics with those of the ancient Jewish people who carried their writings and could share their works as they were more mobile. However, both of these mnemotechnics were designed to stand the test of time whether it be by handing down writings from generation to generation or leaving architectural structures up for interpretation. Peter’s view on the intersectionality of writing and immortality allows us as a class to see what was significant not only to ancient civilizations, but to modern cultures now. We also see the evolution of methods of preservation and sharing of information. I definitely agree with Peters’ belief that one way to achieve immortality is through media. This isn’t only the case with writing, when we look at music, movies, television, and more, we don’t just interact with the newest songs and forget about them. We listen to jazz from the 70’s, Rock and Roll from the 90’s and R&B from the early 2000’s. We even dig through crates at record stores to get that authentic feeling, supporting a focal point of our course which is that, “the medium is the message”. Though we are in the age of technology and have everything at our fingertips, my one qualm is that certain forms of media such as text messages, emails, and even photos that aren’t in physical form can be wiped away in the snap of a finger, leaving us without any memories at all.

Works Cited

Peters, J. D. (2016). The marvelous clouds: Toward a philosophy of Elemental Media. The University of Chicago Press.