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Electronic Mediations
Die Schrift: Hat schreiben Zukunft?
In Does Writing Have a Future?, a remarkably perceptive work first published in German in 1987, Vilém Flusser asks what will happen to thought and communication as written communication gives way, inevitably, to digital expression. In his introduction, Flusser proposes that writing does not, in fact, have a future because everything that is now conveyed in writing—and much that cannot be—can be recorded and transmitted by other means. Confirming Flusser’s status as a theorist of new media in the same rank as Marshall McLuhan, Jean Baudrillard, Paul Virilio, and Friedrich Kittler, the balance of this book teases out the nuances of these developments. To find a common denominator among texts and practices that span millennia, Flusser looks back to the earliest forms of writing and forward to the digitization of texts now under way. For Flusser, writing—despite its limitations when compared to digital media—underpins historical consciousness, the concept of progress, and the nature of critical inquiry. While the text as a cultural form may ultimately become superfluous, he argues, the art of writing will not so much disappear but rather evolve into new kinds of thought and expression.
154 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
18 people are currently reading
333 people want to read
About the author
Vilém Flusser
87 books167 followersVilém Flusser was a philosopher born in Czechoslovakia. He lived for a long period in Brazil and later in France, and his works are written in several different languages.
His early work was marked by discussion of the thought of Martin Heidegger, and by the influence of existentialism and phenomenology. Phenomenology would play a major role in the transition to the later phase of his work, in which he turned his attention to the philosophy of communication and of artistic production. He contributed to the dichotomy in history: the period of image worship, and period of text worship, with deviations consequently into idolatry and "textolatry".
Flusser was born in 1920 in Prague into a family of Jewish intellectuals. His father, Gustav Flusser, studied mathematics and physics (under Albert Einstein among others). Flusser attended German and Czech primary schools and later a German grammar school.
In 1938, Flusser started to study philosophy at the Juridical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague. In 1939, shortly after the Nazi occupation, Flusser emigrated to London to continue his studies for one term at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Vilém Flusser lost all of his family in the German concentration camps: his father died in Buchenwald in 1940; his grandparents, his mother and his sister were brought to Auschwitz and later to Theresienstadt where they were killed. The next year, he emigrated to Brazil, living both in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
In 1960 he started to collaborate with the Brazilian Institute for Philosophy (IBF) in São Paulo and published in the Revista Brasileira de Filosofia; by these means he seriously approached the Brazilian intellectual community. During that decade he published and taught at several schools in São Paulo, being Lecturer for Philosophy of Science at the Escola Politécnica of the University of São Paulo and Professor of Philosophy of Communication at the Escola Dramática and the Escola Superior de Cinema in São Paulo. He also participated actively in the arts, collaborating with the Bienal de São Paulo, among other cultural events.
Beginning in the 1950s he taught philosophy and functioned as a journalist, before publishing his first book Língua e realidade (Language and Reality) in 1963. In 1972 he decided to leave Brazil.
He lived in both Germany and the South of France. To the end of his life, he was quite active writing and giving lectures around media theory. He died in 1991 in a car accident, while visiting his native Prague to give a lecture.
His early work was marked by discussion of the thought of Martin Heidegger, and by the influence of existentialism and phenomenology. Phenomenology would play a major role in the transition to the later phase of his work, in which he turned his attention to the philosophy of communication and of artistic production. He contributed to the dichotomy in history: the period of image worship, and period of text worship, with deviations consequently into idolatry and "textolatry".
Flusser was born in 1920 in Prague into a family of Jewish intellectuals. His father, Gustav Flusser, studied mathematics and physics (under Albert Einstein among others). Flusser attended German and Czech primary schools and later a German grammar school.
In 1938, Flusser started to study philosophy at the Juridical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague. In 1939, shortly after the Nazi occupation, Flusser emigrated to London to continue his studies for one term at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Vilém Flusser lost all of his family in the German concentration camps: his father died in Buchenwald in 1940; his grandparents, his mother and his sister were brought to Auschwitz and later to Theresienstadt where they were killed. The next year, he emigrated to Brazil, living both in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
In 1960 he started to collaborate with the Brazilian Institute for Philosophy (IBF) in São Paulo and published in the Revista Brasileira de Filosofia; by these means he seriously approached the Brazilian intellectual community. During that decade he published and taught at several schools in São Paulo, being Lecturer for Philosophy of Science at the Escola Politécnica of the University of São Paulo and Professor of Philosophy of Communication at the Escola Dramática and the Escola Superior de Cinema in São Paulo. He also participated actively in the arts, collaborating with the Bienal de São Paulo, among other cultural events.
Beginning in the 1950s he taught philosophy and functioned as a journalist, before publishing his first book Língua e realidade (Language and Reality) in 1963. In 1972 he decided to leave Brazil.
He lived in both Germany and the South of France. To the end of his life, he was quite active writing and giving lectures around media theory. He died in 1991 in a car accident, while visiting his native Prague to give a lecture.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 28, 2013
Amazing book. Way ahead of its time. Makes a powerful case to say that writing and reading is probably a dying thing and were all largely becoming illiterate towards modes of communication of the past and don't quite have a grasp on the future of communication. It's not sentimental just a powerful essay of observations and possible future paths.
August 23, 2016
Flusser's analysis in this book is fascinating. With the rise of digital, auditory, and visual communication, the idea that writing could not have a future sure seems possible. Yet, as of now, writing is also seeing a historic flourishing.
The one critique I would make of this piece is that it feels like it didn't need to be a book. A tight, 30-page essay would have done the trick. It could have even been a slide deck or a series of pictures...just kidding. But in all seriousness, it went a little too far down the rabbit hole at times and could have been streamlined.
The one critique I would make of this piece is that it feels like it didn't need to be a book. A tight, 30-page essay would have done the trick. It could have even been a slide deck or a series of pictures...just kidding. But in all seriousness, it went a little too far down the rabbit hole at times and could have been streamlined.
January 26, 2013
not as classy as other 60's 70's theorists writings. Too many hyperbolic statements. even as a rhetoric strategy (eg. Machiavelli's), it's too much.
June 13, 2021
This is not a review. I don't believe I am competent enough to write a review on a work that's way much ahead of it's time and discuss ideas that's original and marvelous as god breathing life out of mud. I'll just post some of the ideas it explores in form of questions in hope that they would make someone curious to read this book which has only 6 reviews on this platform.
Is language a creation of our consciousness or is it other way around?
Does written language be in gratitude to a device of our creation: alphabet for it's conception or is the alphabet just the vampirc jailors of the language?
Can we or would we have to change our very consciousness with the emergence of other devices for harnessing language?
What would spoken language sound like without written language?
How Gutenberg with his printing machine interacted with the very concept of Platonic heaven?
How much do you owe to poetry for your perception of colors, sound and every other sense?
How writing desks, pen and stationary affect writing being so poor of means of writing? And what would happen with more sophisticated means of writing?
How would poets of the future write with these means and what will be the end product would look like?
The list goes on and on.
Read it. As Flusser stated here we who used to revive texts are now swimming in a sea of text. With the internet we no longer even swimming we are drowned among a storm of texts. It's hard to upon by something that will give an explanation of this ocean of text. Something that would make some sense of all the information and prophesize of a paradigm shift that's yet to occur. It will shake your very core beliefs of your very own inner thoughts whatever they are.
Is language a creation of our consciousness or is it other way around?
Does written language be in gratitude to a device of our creation: alphabet for it's conception or is the alphabet just the vampirc jailors of the language?
Can we or would we have to change our very consciousness with the emergence of other devices for harnessing language?
What would spoken language sound like without written language?
How Gutenberg with his printing machine interacted with the very concept of Platonic heaven?
How much do you owe to poetry for your perception of colors, sound and every other sense?
How writing desks, pen and stationary affect writing being so poor of means of writing? And what would happen with more sophisticated means of writing?
How would poets of the future write with these means and what will be the end product would look like?
The list goes on and on.
Read it. As Flusser stated here we who used to revive texts are now swimming in a sea of text. With the internet we no longer even swimming we are drowned among a storm of texts. It's hard to upon by something that will give an explanation of this ocean of text. Something that would make some sense of all the information and prophesize of a paradigm shift that's yet to occur. It will shake your very core beliefs of your very own inner thoughts whatever they are.
December 18, 2025
"There are people who will write because they think it still makes sense, and there are people who no longer write but who go back to kindergarten*. And then there are people who write despite knowing that it makes no sense. This essay is actually directed at the first two but dedicated to the third."
*Here, Flusser means going back to 'relearn' writing not in the ways we have conventionally understood it up until now but in light of the digital age and the dawn of the image over the linear text, which brings with it the ends of writing as we know it (and with all that that therefore implies, including the emergence of a post-historical situation). Although this change is certainly not as abrupt as we might like to think, much of what Flusser writes here certainly seems to resonate in today's world. It is eerily prophetic in that sense and perhaps more urgent than ever.
*Here, Flusser means going back to 'relearn' writing not in the ways we have conventionally understood it up until now but in light of the digital age and the dawn of the image over the linear text, which brings with it the ends of writing as we know it (and with all that that therefore implies, including the emergence of a post-historical situation). Although this change is certainly not as abrupt as we might like to think, much of what Flusser writes here certainly seems to resonate in today's world. It is eerily prophetic in that sense and perhaps more urgent than ever.
September 20, 2023
seiner zeit voraus und unglaublich weitsichtig. sein stil, das herleiten von begriffen, das durchdenken von dingen, ist beeindruckend. manchmal aber auch too much. er verknüpft dinge, weil er sie verknüpfen kann, sprachlich und intellektuell, aber nicht, weil sie offensichtlich sind, sich aufdrängen. es wäre interessant zu wissen wie flusser seinen essay weitergeschrieben hätte, ob er revidieren müsste (noch schreiben wir mehr als weniger, noch sind zeitungen nicht verschwunden, noch denken wir alphabetisch). oder hatte er den blick noch viel weiter gerichtet?
February 17, 2022
Alucinante y bellísimo ensayo sobre el pasado, presente, futuro y no-futuro de la escritura.
Escribimos con lo que sabemos: imágenes, audio, código alfanumérico, lenguajes de programación. No hay que cerrarse a nada, nunca dejar de aprender.
Escribimos con lo que sabemos: imágenes, audio, código alfanumérico, lenguajes de programación. No hay que cerrarse a nada, nunca dejar de aprender.
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February 8, 2022Is language the creation of our consciousness or is it the other way around?? Also letters are vampires,,,, flusser said it not me.
December 27, 2025
Particularly enjoyed the chapter on scriptwriters-“scriptwriters literally serve the devil.” Exciting book, but it could have been more streamlined.
December 22, 2024
Very good, definitely recommended, but uneven compared to the other two books in the trilogy.
The irony is that "writing" as a topic elicits considerably less power from Flusser, in his writing, than does the "technical image" in the other book: it is almost as if Flusser had already capitulated to the end of writing as a fait accompli and was wholly taken up with the emergent technical image.
The irony is that "writing" as a topic elicits considerably less power from Flusser, in his writing, than does the "technical image" in the other book: it is almost as if Flusser had already capitulated to the end of writing as a fait accompli and was wholly taken up with the emergent technical image.
April 10, 2020
Flusser is a brilliant thinker and writer. 'Does Writing Have a Future?' is bursting at the seams with interesting ideas. Unfortunately, the failure of this text to engage with linguistic research causes it to flounder in ignorance.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews