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Melanie Lee English 308J Summary and Rhetorical Analysis Blogposting

Are Ancient Images a Kind of Feminized Logos?

Summary of Chapter 1, “Word/Image” (with references to Preface)

Acknowledging the “explosive changes” (1) the acquisition of writing brings to any culture, Shlain examines the “relationship between literacy and patriarchy” (Preface ix). He claims that writing subconsciously perpetuates “a patriarchal outlook” and in its “alphabetic form, diminishes feminine values and with them, women’s power” (Schlain 1). Shlain recalls Marshall McLuhan’s theory that society is sculpted by communication methods more than communication content. McLuhan classifies media and their corresponding technologies and claims that communication technologies infiltrate the “collective psyche of any society that uses them” and “exert a powerful influence on cultural perceptions” (Schlain 2). Schlain applies McLuhan’s theory to the alphabet’s development. If new communication technology not only conducts communication, but also creates “new social patterns and new perceptual realities” (qtd. in Shlain 2), Shlain wonders how the technology of letters “affected the balance of power between men and women” (2).

Anthropological evidence suggests that in the absence of literacy, ancient and diverse agrarian cultures—“the Iroquois and the Hopi in North America, the inhabitants of Polynesia, the African !Kung, and numerous others around the world”—enacted egalitarian female/male relationships (Shlain 3). Strong evidence of goddess worship in the earliest, pre-literate agrarian societies suggests women’s shared sovereignty with men. Citing Claude Levi-Strauss’s claim that the “appearance of writing” resulted in the development of “hierarchical societies,” Shlain equates the rise and fall of misogyny and patriarchy with the rise and fall of the “alphabetic written word” by interpreting many cultural god and goddess myths and historical correlations (3). He claims that images are “primarily reproductions of the sensual world of vision,” concrete approximations of reality, the parts of which “the brain simultaneously perceives” as wholly integrated “synthetically into a gestalt” (Shlain 4). Images, mostly, are recognized “in an all-at-once manner,” while the “comprehension of written words emerges in a one-at-a-time fashion” (Shlain 4-5). The linear logic required to analyze letters, words, and sentences and make meaning from them is what Shlain calls a “prime example of reductionism” that relies on abstraction, since alphabetic symbols “do not represent the images of anything in particular” (5). Thus, the brain works differently to view images than it does to read text. Image recognition requires “wholeness, simultaneity, and synthesis”; reading text requires “sequence, analysis, and abstraction” (Shlain 5).

Shlain asserts that cross-culturally, images and even the processes used to perceive them are labeled feminine, while words and the processes used to understand them are labeled masculine (5). He suggests that “the decline of the goddess began” with the advent of writing, and with it, the devaluation of images (and women) as ways to relate to the world (Shlain 7). This change, according to Schlain, created patriarchy. His observation that three powerful, patriarchal world religions are anchored in the words of the Old Testament that “features an imageless Father deity” who claims authority through “his word” supports his theory (Shlain 7). Shlain’s interrogation employs “competitive plausibility” to “consider . . . which of the hypothetical explanations of historical events is the most plausible” (3). Shlain posits that the re-emergence of the image into worldwide collective consciousness through the new media and Internet technologies will revive egalitarianism between women and men.

Analysis of Rhetorical Appeals Schlain Uses
Schlain employs a combination of logos and ethos in his book’s Preface and Chapter 1, “Image/Word.” To make his case, his logic draws on a number of sources from expert scholars such as Levi-Strauss and McLuhan, to anthropological and historical evidence of goddess worship, to Prince Modupe’s autobiographical encounters with literacy. Schlain’s insights during his travels, discussed in his Preface, enrich his claims, adding depth to his reasoning with anecdotes that show, for example, how his Mediterranean journey inspired this book and deepened his interest in what he calls the conflict between word and image. These insights also provide a kind of visual link; readers can visualize what he describes. Schlain is adept in his use of ethos. Surfacing his roles as a vascular surgeon who heads a medical center department and a faculty member of a medical school establishes his intellectual credentials. Schlain’s curiosity about the way the brain works extends itself to the research he does for his book. His ethos is informed and inquisitive; he approaches his topic with energy and passion. At the same time, Schlain’s words show a sense of humility and awe that works well for discussion of his bold thesis.

Discussion Question: Paraphrase Schlain’s thesis in your own words. Are you inclined to agree or disagree with him? Explain why or why not.

Works Cited
Shlain, Leonard. Preface and “ Image/Word.” The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image. New York: Penguin / Compass, 1998. Pp. vii-7.
HOW TO CITE THE IMAGE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_of_Hohle_Fels