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The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image (Compass), by Leonard Shlain
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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 Goddess, images, and feminine values. Writing drove cultures toward linear left-brain thinking and this shift upset the balance between men and women, initiating the decline of the feminine and ushering in patriarchal rule. Examining the cultures of the Israelites, Greeks, Christians, and Muslims, Shlain reinterprets ancient myths and parables in light of his theory. Provocative and inspiring, this book is a paradigm-shattering work that will transform your view of history and the mind.
- Sales Rank: #36411 in Books
- Color: Multicolor
- Brand: Penguin Books
- Published on: 1999-09-01
- Released on: 1999-09-01
- Ingredients: Example Ingredients
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.40" h x 1.05" w x 5.46" l, .99 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 464 pages
- Great product!
Amazon.com Review
"Literacy has promoted the subjugation of women by men throughout all but the very recent history of the West," writes Leonard Shlain. "Misogyny and patriarchy rise and fall with the fortunes of the alphabetic written word."
That's a pretty audacious claim, one that The Alphabet Versus the Goddess provides extensive historical and cultural correlations to support. Shlain's thesis takes readers from the evolutionary steps that distinguish the human brain from that of the primates to the development of the Internet. The very act of learning written language, he argues, exercises the human brain's left hemisphere--the half that handles linear, abstract thought--and enforces its dominance over the right hemisphere, which thinks holistically and visually. If you accept the idea that linear abstraction is a masculine trait, and that holistic visualization is feminine, the rest of the theory falls into place. The flip side is that as visual orientation returns to prominence within society through film, television, and cyberspace, the status of women increases, soon to return to the equilibrium of the earliest human cultures. Shlain wisely presents this view of history as plausible rather than definite, but whether you agree with his wide-ranging speculations or not, he provides readers eager to "understand it all" with much to consider. --Ron Hogan
From Library Journal
The advantages of a literate society are self-evident, but is there a dark side to language? In this extraordinary book, Shlain, a surgeon and the author of Art and Physics (LJ 9/1/91), argues that when cultures acquire literacy, the brain's left hemisphere dominates the right?with enormous consequences. Alphabetic writing, Shlain believes, "subliminally fosters a patriarchal outlook" at the expense of feminine values. Focusing on Western cultures, Shlain surveys world history and religion to illustrate how alphabet literacy fosters extremes of intolerance. Indeed, a subtheme of the book is that overreliance on the left hemisphere "initially leads a society through a period of demonstrable madness." Such aberrations as group suicide, religious persecution, and witch-hunting are the result of a dominant linear, reductionist, and abstract method of perception. While admitting that "correlation does not prove causality," Shlain presents a forceful case based on a wealth of circumstantial evidence. An absorbing, provocative, and, ironically, highly literate work that should receive considerable review attention; recommended for most public and academic libraries.?Laurie Bartolini, MacMurray Coll. Lib., Springfield, IL
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
About the Author
Leonard Shlain is the author of Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time & Light, and The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image. He is the chief of laparoscopic surgery at California Medical Center in San Francisco.
Most helpful customer reviews
103 of 112 people found the following review helpful.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof!
By A Customer
After digesting Leonard Shlain's AVG hypothesis, I was left wondering if I had just experienced a brilliant, revolutionalry discovery, or the biggest pile of bull I'd ever read. It was an interesting intellectual exercise to come to the conclusion that it was most likely the latter. Shlain's hypothesis was interesting, but there was nothing he presented that convinced me that it had to be true, or was even likely to be true. The idea that the *process* of reading or viewing images has powerful effects on the brain that are independent of the *content* is so radical that it requires extraordinary proof to be accepted as true. Dr. Shlain has gathered interesting anecdotal evidence to support his ideas, but makes a huge leap by identifying the mental process of reading as being key. Even if literacy is correlated with women's oppression, what are the alternative hypotheses? Maybe literacy allows laws to be firmly codified and spread throughout a culture, allowing more organized government or repression that would favor a patriarchy. If this were the case, television could be expected to have an impact similar to literacy, instead of the opposite, liberating effect, as Shlain claims. He does not have a satisfactory answer to my question of how current media images of violence and female oppression could possibly be beneficial to women. Finally, Shlain's biological argument was very weak. As a neuroscientist, I am always skeptical of male/female, left/right brain ideas. When Shlain extended this metaphor to say that the rod photoreceptors in the eye are "feminine" and the cones are "masculine" I really began to tune out. I am disheartened by the lack of critical examination of Shlain's ideas and urge others to critically evaluate his work before accepting it as truth.
132 of 146 people found the following review helpful.
A fascinating read!
By A Customer
First of all, I absolutely loved this book. It is a fascinating and beautifully written book, encompassing history, science, and religion studies. I'd like to clear up some confusion and misconceptions about the book, however. (At least, how I see it) The Alphabet versus the Goddess is NOT an argument against literacy or writing. (It's ridiculous to even entertain such an idea, considering the medium we are talking about!) Nor is it an arrogant, sweeping statement of how things are absolutely. It is simply an observation of how male/female values have changed throughout history as the advent of the alphabet is experienced by cultures around the world. The author is always careful to acknowledge that there are other theories, and that this is only his opinion, based on the facts that are presented.
The main premise is not that literacy itself is the "root of all evil" or the sole cause of the oppression of women and feminine based religions. Rather, these things occur when alphabet literacy (primarily a left-brain, masculine function) is exalted and revered to the exclusion of all else. It is when linear, concrete thinking overrides image, the abstract, and intuition that conflict arises. The key is, to put it simply, balance. The feminine and masculine sides are neither "good" nor "bad", just different facets of the mind that need each other to be complete.
I love to read, probably more than most people. It is rare to find me in a spare moment with my nose not buried in a book. And there is no denying the tremendous value and importance the written word has in our lives. Yet I see and understand the necessity of this balance. Too often people will believe the most ridiculous statements, simply because they are in written form. (The supermarket tabloids and internet rumors are two obvious examples of this.) Reading and writing are also primarily solitary pursuits, which tend to shift our focus away from the world and people around us, to the point of indifference or, in extreme cases, outright hate. Balance, balance, balance.
I cannot help but make a couple observations on the review from San Francisco - One, the comment about the author being a doctor, which makes his words gospel and infallible. Only once in the entire book (in the preface) does the author identify himself as a doctor. He does this only to explain his knowledge of the neuroanatomical portion of his hypothesis. His title is not on the cover or the copyright page or anywhere else in the book. I don't see a basis for the insinuation that the author is "throwing his weight around" as a doctor, so his opinion should of course be correct. Also, did anyone else find the line about how the "precious resource" of paper and ink were "wasted" amusing? After reading this incredible book (which you don't have to agree with to enjoy, anyway; it's fascinating stuff!) the reviewer throws in a comment which perfectly epitomizes the problem of raising alphabet literacy to divine proportions. I don't know if anyone else caught that, but gave me a chuckle or two.
65 of 73 people found the following review helpful.
Shlain's grasp of linguistics is far too weak
By Mark Newbrook
In this book, Shlain argues that the adoption of alphabetic scripts in ancient times triggered massive, unwelcome changes in apparently unconnected areas of human thought and society, chiefly involving shifts in the direction of 'linear', non-holistic thinking, an excessive concern with logic and science, and patriarchical systems in which women and their ideas have been suppressed and undervalued. In developing his case, he naturally ranges widely outside his own field of expertise (surgery). I am able to comment authoritatively only on his linguistics; but, given that the discipline is so central to his thesis, the major problems which he has in this area are crucial. These include: a) sporadic confusion of languages and their writing systems; b) sporadic confusion of alphabetic writing and writing systems generally; c) neglect of syllabic writing systems; d) some inaccurate and dated terminology/perspectives on logographic writing systems such as that of Chinese; e) utter confusion of phonemes and speech sounds (some specific comments in this area are wildly wrong); f) adoption of a wrong and misleading definition of the term 'alphabet'; g) apparently limited awareness of the range of views among contemporary linguists; h) adoption of speculative and partisan accounts of the early stages of human language and society; i) inadequately supported claims to the effect that many major historical developments were largely caused by the adoption of alphabetic script (it is not difficult to see the effects of a near-universal causal factor if one is determined to do so; but much more systematic and objective investigation would be required before one could actually demonstrate the validity of such a thesis). Whatever Shlain's other strengths, he should have acquired a much stronger grasp of linguistics before developing theories in this area. My extended comments on Shlain's linguistics appear in The Skeptic 19:3 (pp 42-44).
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