Page - 43 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/01

Writing, Affordances, and Governable Subjects | 43www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/1, 33–44 treaty form as the model (standard) for Deuteronomy suggests that Israel’s subjectivity is as the subordinate power. To be Israel is to be a loyal, docile subject.24 In examining the affordances of writing that are taken advantage of in Deuteronomy, some of the practical ways in which this subjectivity is created become evident. These affordances are something of a commonplace now, aspects of writing and books so widely accepted they are deemed “nor- mal” or “natural” and therefore not worth examining. Yet for the writers of Deuteronomy, the technology of writing was relatively new, something to be accepted and used, adapted and explored in order to learn what might be possible with it. I end by noting that what is past is present. What I mean by this is that a digital revolution is underway, one that presents affordances to users and that shapes subjectivity in new ways. Considering a familiar technology with a long social history offers a perspective from which to analyze the digital revolution. The government of people is facilitated by the affordances of technology, dig- ital and otherwise. This is not because technologies are deterministic or be- cause a particular use of them is inherent and inevitable; it is, rather, because users realize those affordances and possibilities, take advantage of them, and use them for certain goals or purposes. As Bernard Stiegler has argued, such is as it ever has been for humans with technology: we find ways to use it and to put it to new, different uses.25 This was the case for writing and books, as Deuteronomy demonstrates. It is the case for digital technologies too. Bibliography Carr, David McLain, 2011, The Formation of the Hebrew Bible: A New Reconstruction, New York: Oxford University Press. Christensen, Duane L., 2001, Deuteronomy 1:1–21:9, Word Biblical Commentary 6A, Nash- ville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2nd ed. Edenburg, Cynthia / Müller, Reinhard, 2019, Editorial Introduction: Perspectives on the Treaty Framework of Deuteronomy, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 8, 2, 73–86. Gibson, James J., 2015, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception, Classic Editions, New York: Psychology Press Classic Editions. Josephus, 1930, Jewish Antiquities, Books I–IV, trans. H. St. John Thackeray and Ralph Mar- cus, Loeb Classical Library 242/490, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Kraft, Emilie, 2008, Ten Commandments Monument Controversy, The Encyclopedia of Al- 24 There are many ways by which this goal or end is pursued in the book, which I explore in my forthcoming book, Deuteronomy’s Subject. 25 Stiegler, 1998.