The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image

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The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image

4.21 of 5 stars 4.21 · rating details · 1,051 ratings · 171 reviews

This groundbreaking book proposes that the rise of alphabetic literacy reconfigured the human brain and brought about profound changes in history, religion, and gender relations. Making remarkable connections across brain function, myth, and anthropology, Dr. Shlain shows why pre-literate cultures were principally informed by holistic, right-brain modes that venerated the...more

Paperback, 496 pages

Published September 1st 1999 by Penguin Books (first published 1998)

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May 13, 2007 vladimir rated it 5 of 5 stars 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) subtly alte...more

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Jun 27, 2008 Janna rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

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Dec 31, 2012 Sherry rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, cultural-political, historical-non-fiction, inspiration, non-fiction, philosophy, science, middle-east, mystery

This one is in my top books ever read, definitely a 5 star book. Mr. Shain takes us through the history of Western civilization via the lense of the development of the alphabet. He cites the linear sequential alphabet for creating an out of balance left hemispheric lobe -- hyper developed. In the wake of literacy comes religious wars, witch hunts, and misogyny. He demonstrates how each culture becomes extremely left brained -- veering toward hunter/killers, and away from gatherer / nurturers i.e...more

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Jul 18, 2007 Holly Goguen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-spirituality-sociology

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 t...more

5 likes · like · see review

Oct 06, 2009 Anneke rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, art

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, for...more

3 likes · like · see review

Nov 28, 2008 Jude rated it 5 of 5 stars

stimulating, fun, insightful - and you don't have to buy his theory to enjoy this book. it is that fantasy - a history of the world - of thought and art and language - as if women mattered. starting at the beginning is a good idea, but you can also just open to any of the pairings.
so much history, perspective and wonder-ing in this book. He is all about his theory, but its enthusiasm, compassion and intelligence that define his voice for me - and i am grateful for it.

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Dec 11, 2008 Barbara rated it 5 of 5 stars

What an interesting hypothesis--that acquisition of literacy goes hand-in-hand, through history, with misogyny. The scope of Shlain's work is truly breathtaking--I would sit here thinking "if 200 would be a theoretical maximum for IQs, Leonard Shlain must have an IQ of 300." Even so, I couldn't help worrying that Shlain was cherry-picking data. Since I'm not a historian, it's hard to know. But, for example, I did notice that Schlain said that the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution in...more

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May 16, 2012 Robert Lent rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book offers anecdotes, but no evidence. He claims that the written word alters people's brains to make them less feminist, but offers no evidence. Where are the experiments? If, as he claims, the media is what matters, and not the content, then you should be able to measure changes in people's attitudes before and after they read certain books. If he is correct, reading feminist books should make people less feminist. The spoken word has much more power to manipulate emotions than does the...more This book offers anecdotes, but no evidence. He claims that the written word alters people's brains to make them less feminist, but offers no evidence. Where are the experiments? If, as he claims, the media is what matters, and not the content, then you should be able to measure changes in people's attitudes before and after they read certain books. If he is correct, reading feminist books should make people less feminist. The spoken word has much more power to manipulate emotions than does the written word. If you want to whip a mob into a frenzy, you want the spoken word. When people read, they take time and think about what they are reading. The spoken word is highly linear. It comes at you at its pace, not at yours. People are a lot more likely to burn witches because they are whipped into a frenzy by the spoken word than they are by reading a book.

One of his examples is to claim tha the left side of the brain is the "bad" side, while the right side is the "good" side. One of his examples is that the dominant hand is the hand that holds the weapon, while the other hand is the one that holds the baby. But while that baby is being held in the left hand, the dominant hand is holding the spoon. The dominant hand is simply the hand which we are best able to use. It is much better better for fine work and is more accurate, whether that accuracy is with a weapon, threading a needle or feeding a baby.

The use of goddess imagery does not imply feminism. Look at American coinage, there used to be female imagery on the coinage in the late 18th through the 19th century. But in the early 20th century, the female image was replaced by male image. But the 20th century was clearly more feminist than the 19th century. He gives the credit for feminism to television, glossing over the fact that the suffrage movement was a literary movement. It wasn't TV that obtained the vote for women, it was the written word.

He does to great lengths to scrub male symbolism. Consider the myth of Cybelle and Attis. Attis is contrary to his agenda, so he dismisses Attis as a footnote, saying essentially that all Attis does is to die and rise again. But this role as an agricultural god was very important in ancient mythology. Perhaps as people are more estranged from where their food comes from, the less value is placed in the gods and goddesses of agriculture. He also makes the peculiar claim that the bull is a female symbol, because, according to his claim, the bull's skull and horns looks like a uterus and falopian tubes. It really doesn't. You would have to arrange them just right and squint to see them like a bull's skull. The bull is a symbol of male virility for good reason, its genitalia is just the most obvious reason. Everyone who sees a bull notices this. Most people don't get a look at a bull's uterus.

It is ironic that people who love books like this book so much. Imagine two people, the first person has many books, the second has few. Which of these two people are more likely to be feminist? If Slain was right, the second person, the non-reader would be the feminist. But it is the first, the person with many books is much more likely to be a feminist. If he's right, those who listen to anti-feminist speakers should become more feminist, while those who read feminist books should become less feminist.

Shlain makes a major mistake. The written word great power, but the power doesn't lie in the written word itself. The power lies in its permanance. The written word remains, even when you aren't there. It can persist for centuries after your death. And you can distribute identical texts far and wide. The permanence of the written word allows one version to dominate and replace every version which was not written down. We know mythology only from the versions that were written down. How many other versions of these stories do we not have because no one wrote them down? Patriarchal societies did not arise because of the written word. The written word allowed those who wanted power to control the messages that people were exposed to.(less)

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Jan 31, 2012 Kelli Martin rated it 5 of 5 stars

My favorite book of all time. I've owned my copy for over 12 years and it's definitely showing it's age. I have read it time and time again, always gleaning a bit more from it every time.

Slain's writing style is almost addicting. This book, like Art and Physics before it, uses parralel ideas/concepts as chapter headings. For examples, chapters such as Reason/Madness, Adam/Eve, Humanist/Egoist, present diametrically opposed ideas as illustrations for his theory that the linear, left brained, more...more

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Feb 17, 2011 Carlos Alonso-Niemeyer rated it 3 of 5 stars

I am a feminist and lover of women. I admire women as a mysterious entity that never stops fascinating me. This book walks you through the history of women power through out the years. As you understand the constant battle that women have had to fight against a male dominated world, one begins to understand why the written world has become a way to chain them and take their power away.
However, the future will tell us differently. Already there are more women graduating in the US than men. Some o...more

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Sep 10, 2009 Maggie Brown rated it 4 of 5 stars

A blurb by Bart Schneider in "The Washington Post Book World" says this book is a "bold and fascinating investigation of the 'dark side of literacy.' Shlain...makes the startling claim that the advent of literacy ushered in the demise of goddess societies, and shifted the balance of power from women with their intuitive and holistic, right-brain orientation to the more concrete, linear-focused, left-brained men...Both hemispheres of my cerebrum...remained stimulated throughout."

I agree.

Shlain i...more

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Jul 12, 2009 Colin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Offers an amazing review of the co-evolution of language and religion with a fascinating and compelling central thesis: the arrival of alphabetic (vs. pictographic) literacy via religious texts (Old Testament, New Testament and the Quran - all with a singular abstract God) brought a paradigmatic leap into left-brained, abstract thought, encouraging the male hunter (killer) mentality to take hold of the collective consciousness. Up until then, world religions generally involved worship of concret...more

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Apr 26, 2009 Damien rated it 2 of 5 stars

Imagine that you have a rich friend whose Saint Bernard ate a solid gold ring. The friend tells you that you can have the ring if you are willing to go through the dog's poop to get it. That's what this book is like, something valuable within a big pile of crap.

It begins along these lines: early human females needed a lot of iron to give birth to their big brained children, and since they were too weak to hunt the great woolly mammoth needed to get this iron, they offered sex in exchange for wha...more

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Jul 22, 2009 Jinny rated it 5 of 5 stars 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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Nov 13, 2012 E H rated it 5 of 5 stars

It is rare that I learn from a book, as I see books as being mostly useful for relaxation and entertainment. This book educated me about how the written word brought changes to every society--and brought profoundly negative changes to the lives of women. The author did his research well and was refreshingly feminist in his viewpoints. He was very sensitive about the injustices that have been done to women since the literate era began. I have always known that women had and still have a ways to g...more

1 like · like · see review

Oct 21, 2010 Edwin Heartfulsoul rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Alphabet Versus the Goddess is a paradigm shattering work that will transform your view of history and mind.

Proposes that the process of learning alphabetic literacy rewired the human brain, with profound consequences for culture.

Makes remarkable connections across a wide range of subjects including brain function, anthropology, history, and religion.

Argues that literacy reinforced the brain's linear, abstract, predominantly masculine left hemisphere at the expense of the holistic, iconic...more

1 like · like · see review

Aug 02, 2012 Cristina rated it 5 of 5 stars

I found this book somewhat by accident. Clicking around on Amazon, looking for a book and found this as a recommendation. It looked so interesting, but I waited a while to read it. It's a very dense book and took a long time for me to read. Normally I finish a book within 2-3 days. This book took me three weeks. It was packed with so much information, you just can't read it to quickly. In fact, I should have read it even slower in order to stop and look up some of the uncommon words he uses. Any...more

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Nov 01, 2012 Shawna rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is provocative, to say the least. Shlain works hard to pull together past and present with explanations based how a culture communicates. The act of writing and speaking is neurologically formative and this book basically explains this and how you can view historical events and societies through a fresh perspective.
I think that the people that gave this book poor reviews for what may appear as over-reaching elements lacking in evidence failed to read the prologue or preface, because S...more

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Mar 08, 2012 Jamie Grove rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Ironically, I finished reading a book that posits alphabetic literacy perpetuates misogyny on Women's Day. The premise of this book is pretty straight forward: the invention of the alphabet has created inequality among the genders. The author gives numerous instances in which a polytheistic (often with a goddess or numerous goddess central to its belief system) society became literate and shifted towards a monotheistic patriarchal society. For instance there were numerous examples (ancient Greec...more

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Nov 20, 2011 Nick Stibbs rated it 4 of 5 stars

I had seen this book on the shelves of an ex-girlfriend, who was into pagan/goddess/counterculture ideas. Essentially, Shlain is positing the shift from a more visual-Goddess culture to a more text-based Alphabet culture, which started a few thousand years ago. He relates the two modes of representation to different brain states and also ties the change-over to correspond to a switch to a patriarchal culture. Shlain is a good writer and I enjoyed the book rather more than most non-fiction books...more

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Sep 13, 2011 Danaca rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Leonard Shlain certainly had some interesting ideas. I haven't always found his theories to stand up to facts, but they are always intriguing and (usually) pretty well researched anyway. I doubt that the premise of this book - that the development of the alphabet rewired our brains to favor abstract, linear, literal and masculine ideas, which in turn gave rise to patriarchy and misogyny - I doubt that this is the sort of thing that could ever be proved. But he raises an abundant number of intere...more

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Dec 03, 2009 Ben rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

To suggest that the process of becoming alphabet literate destabilizes the human mind in favor of masculine left-brain values and to the detriment of the feminine right-brain, is at the very least an interesting theory. I personally find some of the author's hypotheses to be stretching it a bit, but also feel that he makes some interesting points. At best, the book is a good alternative interpretation and summary of world history, culture, and religion, which purposes to explain many of our dark...more

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Nov 03, 2010 Won-ton Williams rated it 5 of 5 stars

the book ordered history for me, from 10,000 B.C. to 1900 A.D. while presenting an elaborately interesting hypothesis of why women have received the short end of the stick and posits a creative reason for monotheistic male gods in each of the three predominant religions. refers to almost all main characters in the history of the world and touches upon a near complete range of modern cultures retained philosophies. reading the Table of Contents is an adventure in itself. and check out the Index!!...more

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Dec 14, 2008 Debbie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is a great romp through the history of the alphabet, literacy, right-left brain thinking and perception, and the impact all of this has had on the role of women in cultures past and present. The author's theory is intiguing; although, I'm not quite convinced that so much blame for the subjugation of the women should be placed on Judeo-Christianity and Bible reading. Afterall, traditional (not the newer literal approaches so often accepted as the "only way" in contemporary society) have...more

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Mar 20, 2010 April rated it 3 of 5 stars

i was given this book years ago, and started it, upon fred's recommend, i am picking it up again. the beginning, i loved, and the historical tidbits, i found really intriguing. his premise, is interesting, although a little too 'guns germs and steel' for my taste. i am a bit of an anthropology nerd and i could come up with a dozen examples of how hardcore misogyny exists in many non-literate cultures, so i often felt he was forcing the data (and omitting data that did not fit) to prove his point...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Jennifer rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: abandoned-books

I came to this book with high hopes and excitement. The author's thesis sounded intriguing and I looked forward to seeing the archaeological, neurological, and scientific proof that birthed it. However, I stopped reading on page 9.

The citations are weak and the author's generalizations and assertions without proof were coming fast and furious.

In the few pages I read I came across the following uncited and fallacious statements:
"Researchers have never proven beyond dispute that there were ever s...more I came to this book with high hopes and excitement. The author's thesis sounded intriguing and I looked forward to seeing the archaeological, neurological, and scientific proof that birthed it. However, I stopped reading on page 9.

The citations are weak and the author's generalizations and assertions without proof were coming fast and furious.

In the few pages I read I came across the following uncited and fallacious statements:
"Researchers have never proven beyond dispute that there were ever societies in which women had power and influence greater than or even equal to that of men." Untrue.
"There exists a third realm: some call it spiritual, some call it sacred, and some call it supernatural. Humans have acknowledged and incorporated this third realm into every culture ever created." Am I supposed to take that huge generalization literally? And with no citation or footnote? For example, there is so much we do not know about our prehistoric ancestors there is no way we could assert that they all "acknowledged and incorporated" spirituality into their culture.

What I had hoped for from this book was obviously never coming to fruition. The footnote that made me shut the book for good reads as follows: "The evolution of life forms is impelled by three factors: changing environmental demands, the organisms' adaptations to these demands, and the mutation of genes that creates the adaptations. While the radiation into diverse species appears to have been carefully orchestrated by some supreme intelligence, many scientists do not believe any super-conscious effort is actually involved. They theorized the orderly progression of life forms results from constant friction among the three above listed factors. Exercising a writer's artistic license, I will anthropomorphize the random process of evolution in the coming pages and I will use the terms 'nature,' 'natural selection,' 'evolution,' and 'life' interchangeably."

I was hoping for a more scientifically grounded book. The above terms are clearly not interchangeable and confounding their meanings leaves me with grave concerns about the credibility of the author.

Disappointing.(less)

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Jan 05, 2013 Charlotte rated it 4 of 5 stars

The author's thesis is simple and alarmingly weird: literacy has continually been the enemy of the female.

Because this is outrageous and intriguing, I was really skeptical, but I ended up loving this book. It's a fun read, an interesting historical account regardless of how you feel about the premise, and when Shlain takes his musings a bit too far on occasion, highly entertaining. I am convinced that sometimes, but not every time, for better or for worse, he's right.

A fun read for those who s...more

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Aug 28, 2012 Andrew Philip rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

While he takes liberties (he admits he does), and inexplicably litters the text with many a useless "I propose," and " I submit," Shlain nevertheless presents a compelling argument: What if the rise of alphabetic literacy altered the way human beings perceived, and allowed our masculine attributes to not merely overshadow, but suppress, subvert, and slaughter the feminine? Without the intuitive conscious of the feminine, what check was there to male-oriented endeavors of war, conquest, and tortu...more

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Jan 20, 2012 Barbara rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, mythology

If you've ever wondered what happened to the Goddess in ancient belief and myth, why She vanished, as well as why women have been treated so abysmally at certain times in history in nearly every culture, this makes fascinating and disturbing reading.

According to the author, in nearly every culture that has a phonetic alphabet, there was a kind of culture shock that occurred, first when the alphabet was developed and a lot of people became literate, and later when printing became common. These c...more If you've ever wondered what happened to the Goddess in ancient belief and myth, why She vanished, as well as why women have been treated so abysmally at certain times in history in nearly every culture, this makes fascinating and disturbing reading.

According to the author, in nearly every culture that has a phonetic alphabet, there was a kind of culture shock that occurred, first when the alphabet was developed and a lot of people became literate, and later when printing became common. These culture shocks came in waves accompanied by violence and/or oppression, especially against women. These periods of time, at least in the West, also coincided with the growth and spread of monotheistic religions that banished images as "graven" or evil, and reformations of those religions, particularly those that renewed the idea that images were bad and the written word was good. (Confucianism apparently arrived with similar shock waves in the East.) In addition to these effects coinciding with the spread of alphabetic writing and monotheistic religion, they also coincided with the spread of Cartesian ideals that put science and rational thought above faith, nature, irrational thought and the arts, and again with the rise of both atheism and Marxism.

I won't go into much detail, because really the details need to be read as they're presented in the book in order to make the most sense, and I feel that I have a loose grasp on them. This book bears rereading, for me at least. But I recommend it. Any tiny inaccuracies are excusable considering the amount of information the author sifted through to draw his conclusions.

Overall, the conclusions drawn make sense to me. The book doesn't promote illiteracy or a return to a more "backward" culture, as one might conclude before reading it. It promotes balance, much like what Jung would no doubt encourage, between rational and irrational, masculine and feminine, Logos and Eros, science and belief, and nature and civilization. It's easy to see how the spread of the written word and the banishing of images occurring at the same time created an imbalance that people didn't know how to adapt to. One hopes that our increased understanding of human psychology and our need for balance will help us to adapt better to the similar shock waves that occur as we continue to evolve.
(less)

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May 28, 2013 Naum rated it 5 of 5 stars

A profound book that asks provocative questions, speculates about link between literacy and misogyny (and human predacity). I just reread and was just as invigorating as the first time I read it years ago.

Though I gave it 5 stars, I can resonate with some of the 1 star reviews that lambasted it for its non-scientific (and parts early on made me wince) content and worse, cherry picking historical data to force a conclusion and/or omitting historical data unfavorable to the author thesis. But I ha...more

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About Leonard Shlain

Leonard Shlain was an American surgeon and writer, the Chairman of Laparoscopic surgery at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco and was an Associate Professor of Surgery at UCSF.
He was a speaker at such venues as the Smithsonian, Harvard University, Salk Institute, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center and the European Union's Ministers of Culture. In 1999, he...more

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