CS100 Chapter Notes - Chapter assigned readings : Movable Type, Dawning Information Industry, Psychodynamics
Havelock, Logan, Ong… skim Burke/Ornstein
The Greek Legacy - Havelock
● Introduction of greek letters in inscription somewhere about 700BC was to alter
character of human culture, placing gulf between all alphabetic societies and their
precursors
● Letter shapes and values had to pass through period of localization before being
standardized
● Two competing versions, Eastern and Western… effects were registered slowly in
Greece, were partly cancelled during European Middle Ages, been fully realized since
invention of printing press
● Depended upon invention and organization and maintenance of school instruction, a
social rather than technological requirement
● Role of scribe or clerk obsolete, removed elitist status of literacy characteristic of craft
literate epochs
● Script came to resemble an electric current communicating a recollection of the sounds
of the spoken word directly to the brain so that the meaning resounded as it were in the
consciousness without reference to the properties of the letters used
● Could identify phonemes of any language, thus the possibility arose of placing two or
several languages within the same type of script and greatly accelerating the process of
cross-translation → made possible construction of roman literature upon greek models
● Alphabet not originally put at service of human conversation, was first used to record
progressively complete version of the “oral literature” of greece
● Prose recorded and preserved in quantity
● Made available a visualized record abolishing need for memorization
● Made possible production of novel or unexpected statement… novel statement cannot
realize its potential until it can be preserved for further use
Readership Before the Printing Press
● Limits to classical literacy by character of materials and methods used to write
● Alphabet did not fully come into its own until Western Europe had learned to copy the
letter shapes in moveable type and until process in industrial technique made possible
the manufacture of cheap paper
● Reported that earliest material in use was parchment (animal skins), then papyrus
● Distinction between our modern paper literacy and the literacy of our ancestors still
holds… determined in part by quantitative limitations placed in antiquity upon materials
available
● Production of script and resources available for readership were bound to remain
restricted as long as production remained a handicraft
● Alphabet had to await assistance provided by dawning age of scientific advance in
europe in order to be fully released
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Document Summary
Introduction of greek letters in inscription somewhere about 700bc was to alter character of human culture, placing gulf between all alphabetic societies and their precursors. Letter shapes and values had to pass through period of localization before being standardized. Two competing versions, eastern and western effects were registered slowly in. Greece, were partly cancelled during european middle ages, been fully realized since invention of printing press. Depended upon invention and organization and maintenance of school instruction, a social rather than technological requirement. Role of scribe or clerk obsolete, removed elitist status of literacy characteristic of craft literate epochs. Alphabet not originally put at service of human conversation, was first used to record progressively complete version of the oral literature of greece. Made available a visualized record abolishing need for memorization. Made possible production of novel or unexpected statement novel statement cannot realize its potential until it can be preserved for further use.
