The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image
by Leonard Shlain
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Read in July, 2006
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Read in July, 2007
Dr. Shlain definitely takes some liberties in his review of history, but he also asks himself questions that you find yourself equally as curious about as he is when he presents them. The historical flux between word and image, masculine and feminine is often filled with reversals of fortune, tales of religious zealotry, attempts to wipe out the past, sweeping changes by rulers, and equally as sweeping changes back by their successors. History is by no means boring when you are looking through ...more
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What I appreciate about this book is that it doesn't put itself forward as a sure thing. (Clear to those who read forewords or introductions.) He disclaims very clearly that this is a hypothesis that he feels is very likely true. Naturally, he spends the book trying to support that hypothesis strongly.
Some of the connections he makes feel like he's stretching: linking the binding of Chinese women's feet with the surge of printing at the same time, because they use the same type of material, ...more
Some of the connections he makes feel like he's stretching: linking the binding of Chinese women's feet with the surge of printing at the same time, because they use the same type of material, ...more
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recommends it for:
lateral thinkers; people not afraid to ponder the consequences of literacy
Ok, for bibliophiles, this book is like being told that the parents you've admired and cherished and emulated for so long were drunken, abusive, misanthropes.
But if you tough it out, accept the possibility that this habit, this passion that keeps making life worth living, has had possible side-effects, then the pay-off is astounding.
Shlain provides copious examples for his thesis--that the invention of the abstract alphabets (western and, to some extent, eastern pictograph-alphabets) sub...more
But if you tough it out, accept the possibility that this habit, this passion that keeps making life worth living, has had possible side-effects, then the pay-off is astounding.
Shlain provides copious examples for his thesis--that the invention of the abstract alphabets (western and, to some extent, eastern pictograph-alphabets) sub...more
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recommends it for:
feminists; anyone fascinated with language; open-minded people interested in spirituality
This is an amazing book.. Shlain has a theory about the process of most of humanity losing contact with the immense importance of the feminine aspect and perspective on our world view. He goes all the way back and before to the early development of language and subsequently the alphabet and the written word. His research is vast and quite stunning. It is not a new book, and I have had it for years--- it is very dense so I am slowly chipping away at it. I heard the author interviewed on NPR.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in October, 2008
recommended to Damian by:
Pablo Mayrgundterrecommends it for: No one.
This book has an interesting thesis: literacy causes misogyny. The advent of literacy, according to Shlain, altered neural pathways in the literate, leading to strengthened "masculine"/left-brained characteristics (as linear thinking, rationality, reductionism, etc.), which in turn, lead to increasing the mistreatment of women.
As I said, interesting hypothesis. Except that his supporting evidence is lacking, misinterpreted, misunderstood, or simply made up at every step along the...more
As I said, interesting hypothesis. Except that his supporting evidence is lacking, misinterpreted, misunderstood, or simply made up at every step along the...more
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This might take some time... it's a fascinating read, but not the kind of thing you can read while tired -- which is when I get some of my best reading in. It very much needs active reading and thought.
I think he has an interesting hypothesis, and does a great job of recapping other theories and anthropologists' suggestions, but sometimes it feels that he's making a bit of a stretch to take correlation and turn it into causation to support his view of an inevitable decline in women's rights...more
I think he has an interesting hypothesis, and does a great job of recapping other theories and anthropologists' suggestions, but sometimes it feels that he's making a bit of a stretch to take correlation and turn it into causation to support his view of an inevitable decline in women's rights...more
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Read in October, 2008
recommends it for:
People interested in a different look at history
Although this book has a narrow scope I think that it is a valid way to look at history. Sometimes there is too much to take in. And Shlain has some really great theories that appear to hold up. They are at least as plausible as anything else out there. I feel like the other reviews from people who didn't finish the book missed out big time when he finally gets caught up to the current time. And the epilogue answers a lot of people's misgivings. And for the people who were upset that this ...more
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Read in January, 2002
Shlain's theories opened my mind to cultural development. But what I really took away, was his prediction that communication might be taking a step away from the purely textual back to iconic/wholistic messages.
I don't see it happening on a full-scale level, but it is interesting to contemplate.
I don't see it happening on a full-scale level, but it is interesting to contemplate.
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Read in January, 2008
The ultimate book for any feminist library. Here's a summary: You'll learn how paleolithic man in almost all ancient cultures worshipped an earth and fertility Goddess (like an ancient pornography - my opinion). Men finally realized their own sperm had something to do with procreation and decided women should be their property so they could make sure their kids were their own. Soon men invented male "Gods". Then with the appearance of the alphabet, the Torah, Koran, etc., all humans we...more
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Read in June, 2008
I'm loving the ideas in this! Shlain hypothises that the invent of linear, written language is responsible for humans' shift to left-brain (masculine) thinking, and the demise of female-centred worship.
There are some gaps in logic/history, but I love anything that forces me to re-examine something that was a stable force in my life.
Most interesting to me, as a woman in a text-based career that also relies on the Internet - "The computer and the Internet will once again reconfigure the b...more
There are some gaps in logic/history, but I love anything that forces me to re-examine something that was a stable force in my life.
Most interesting to me, as a woman in a text-based career that also relies on the Internet - "The computer and the Internet will once again reconfigure the b...more
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Not quite what I was expecting based on the subtitle but interesting nonetheless.
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Read in March, 2008
I am amazed that I was able to force myself to finish this book. It is filled with so much speculation touted as fact, and wide generalization it makes me sick. Even the author himself admits at one point in the book that correlation of events in time is not evidence of causation, and yet that is exactly what he continues to base this book on. I see no factual evidence in this book that the author's thesis is backed up by any of what he says. Again, and again he interprets history in a way t...more
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Read in July, 2003
This book revolves around the central thesis that literacy and the alphabet reconfigured the human brain, and subsequently brought serious changes into human culture: religion, history, etc. The oldest religions worshipped the Mother Goddess figure, yet, when reading and writing came into the picture (roughly 5000-4000 BCE) the supremacy of the female deity faded, and the male deities became more and more prominent. Shlain traces this fundamental change throughout history... a phenomenal book th...more
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Read in August, 2003
I picked up this book in a used book store one summer and didn’t think it was going to be more than a skim over read. Nope, from page one I was marching through mud, but I marched through because I found it stimulating and eye opening. The author, Leonard Shalain, really takes liberties in his view of human history, but with that being said, his ideas are clever and exposing. I liked this book and thought a lot about it. I recommend it, but don’t worry about finishing it, the second half is ...more
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This books presents an interesting premise: as humans began to use written alphabets, we slowly switched from an intuitive, holistic, feminine, right-brained way of thinking to a linear, left-brained, masculine way of thinking that shifted our concepts of the Divine from a feminine image to a masculine one.
Shlain presents some interesting, thought-provoking theories and examples to illustrate them. Even though there is at least one instance where it appears to me that he wasn't completel...more
Shlain presents some interesting, thought-provoking theories and examples to illustrate them. Even though there is at least one instance where it appears to me that he wasn't completel...more
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a detailed guide of how things came to be as they are, how the brain works, and why our goddess, our inner sense of equality among genders fell. made me feel a bit sad, grieving for our lost paradise of seeing eye to eye. c'est la vie...
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I'm trying to get through this book because I want to know more about his theory...though he bases a lot of his thought on the "meat for sex" theory of evolution that I think is complete hogwash.
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