Re: The Alphabet and the Goddess

[Andy Dugas <adugas -at- NAVIS -dot- COM>]

Sounds very interesting, indeed.

I wanted to comment on two things.

You wonder how Shakespeare fits in. In a way, Shakespeare was the one of
the first "modern" writers to be widely published and disseminated, thanks
to that new fangled invention, movable type. Mass printing also had the
effect of freezing the language, slowing its evolution down to a snail's
pace by standardizing spelling and to a lesser extent, usage. Compare
Shakespeare with Chaucer (way different, almost completely foreign), and
then Shakespeare with current English (quite comprehensible).

As for the text/image issue, a little history may prove helpful: In olden
days, no image generator could match the human imagination. Created images
were attempts to match the imagination, and since well written/spoken words
could conjure up more vivid imagery than static paintings... Well, the word
(spoken or written) won out every time.

Sophisticated image creation has only really been around for 150 years or
so, since the invention of photography. With the subsequent development of
cinema, images were suddenly very competitive. Cinema was immediately
adopted as a propaganda tool, especially by the newly-empowered Bolsheviks,
who used film as a means of reaching the illiterate masses (and wasn't
literacy one of the supporting pillars of the aristocracy?).

Up until relatively recently, image-making was focussed on depicting
reality. Painting up to the late 1800s was all about being able to best
depict the real (certain religious art excepted). Note how the various
forms of abstract painting only arrived after the development of
photography, as if in response.

Consider the horses on the Lascaux cavern walls. These are powerful for us
because they reach into our skull and jerk us back in time. But for their
creators, they were depictions of reality, attempts to copy reality.

Modern tools enable us to generate and manipulate images that speak to us
in the same way those horses on the cave wall do. They can reach deep into
our subconscious, stir up ancient emotions buried deep in our genes.

Propagandists use this to manipulate public opinion. Advertisers to
manipulate public buying decisions. And technical writers to instruct and
educate.

How it is all affecting us, I don't know. Perhaps this era is where the
East of the image and the West of the word meet and become one. Maybe we're
coming back full circle, back to the cave. Then again, the new strength of
images may point to a new strain of illiteracy...

Thanks for mentioning the book on the list. I'll check it out. In turn, I
suggest you read some Joseph Campbell, not so much to learn about
mythology, but how we are myth-making creatures and why.

______________________________
Date:    Sun, 4 Oct 1998 23:04:45 -0700
From:    Richard Mateosian <xrm -at- EMAIL -dot- MSN -dot- COM>
Subject: The Alphabet vs the Goddess

I just heard Moira Gunn interviewing Leonard Shlain, author of Art
and Physics and, most recently, The Alphabet vs the Goddess. A lot
of it sounded like warmed over Elizabeth Gould Davis, but his main
thesis is very interesting.

The basic idea is that the introduction of writing about 5000 years
ago rewired our brains and totally changed society. In this century,
the introduction of electronically mediated images has rewired us
again, leading to another massive social change.

What brought it home to me was his assertion that the books that
have shaped our society -- works of history, philosophy, literature,
and science -- are thick tomes, devoid of pictures. I'm not sure how
Shakespeare fits in, and the works of Euclid and Newton did use
pictures, but the point is largely true. In fact, even up to 25
years ago, most technical writing was heavy on prose and light on
pictures. Technical illustration was a specialty, not something that
writers tossed in effortlessly as they went along.

Shlain talks about how images like the mushroom cloud and the view
of Earth from space have affected people in our time as profoundly
as any book. Television, the laser printer, the Web -- who knows how
these things are changing us?

I've seen a huge increase in the amount and role of visual content
since I've been reading and writing technical documents. Is this
just because our tools are better, or is our audience changing as
well?  ...RM


Richard Mateosian <srm -at- cyberpass -dot- net>    www.cyberpass.net/~srm/
Review Editor, IEEE Micro                Berkeley, CA

© Copyright 1998.  All rights reserved.


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