Susie Gerard

English 308J

10/5/10

Chapter 8à Alphabet Originates from an unlikely source

Shlains eighth chapter in The Alphabet vs. The Goddess titled alph/bet, is about the history of the alphabet focusing on its pros an cons, its connection to the fall of the goddess and its origin. Shlain describes how the alphabet was u

nconventional, because it was easy to learn in contrast to the Egyptian and Mesopotamian complicated equivalents. Egyptian and Mesopotamian scribes also hid their written language from the general public because, to be literate was to have power weather you were rich or poor. Shlain argues that the alphabet ended the dominance of the literate upper class. Shlain also points out that although the alphabet evened the playing field for literacy, it changed religion in a way that essentially extinguished the goddess. Religions once required its followers to see the image of their god, with the a

dvent of the alphabet, “to know the deity demanded that one must first read His written words.” (65) Shlain makes the argument that even though the cultures using the alphabet accomplished all varieties of sophisticated and new age technology, they also, “for the first time in recorded history” (66) had disputes and war. The alphabet allowed people to organize and structure knowledge and think abstractly since all forms of writing strengthen left brain dominance. Shlain is sure that since the alphabet doesn’t resemble the idea its trying to convey it moves from the all at once way of thinking to the one at a time mental processing, since we read words a letter at a time to know what the word is. Ultimately in Shlains mind the introduction of the alphabet led to left brain dominance, abstract thinking and turning away from worshiping goddesses they could see to worshiping abstract male gods.

Chapter 8 is also concerned with the origins of the alphabet. Reference books say that Phoenicians were the creators of the alphabet because the earliest Greek historian, Herodotus, wrote that it was the Phoenicians who introduced writing to the Greeks. Shlain remains unconvinced because the Phoenicians were dull normal people with plain lifestyles. The only thing that can be credited to the Phoenicians was their navy and the only thing written about them was from their enemies who conquered them. He also argues that since all

other forms of writing were from creative and impressive cultures very unlike the Phoenician people. Shlain suggests that the alphabet came instead from the Habiru or Midianite nomadic people who were roaming the Sinai Desert. Hebrew letters were found in 1905 at the site of an Egyptian Goddess temple. The rocks with the letters on them were said to be from around 1800 B.C., which is older than the evidence found supporting the Phoenician theory. Shlain also points out the coincidence that the only event with the Sinai Desert was that this was the place where Yahweh gave Moses the 10 commandments and the old testament of the bible is the oldest known book.

In reading Shlains chapter 8 of The Alphabet Versus The Goddess, I have had a variety of rhetorical reactions. I think that Shlain is a well read, creative individual, but I also don’t know if he is really an authority on the subject. I think the foundations on which he is basing his theories are accurate and his theories are plausible, but not entirely convincing. Shlain seems to give a brief historical background to set the scene in the most favorable way for his evidence to be portrayed, but I think there is a lot more going on than he discloses. Although it would be impossible to put enough historical background facts into this book to make it holistic, the brief historical account he mentions is incomplete, and in some places irrelevant. For example, he spent about 3 pages talking about who he thought didn’t invent the alphabet and only about 2 paragraphs on the people he thought did invent it. The three pages about the people he thought didn’t invent the alphabet were full of negative images of those people but he was still associating them with the alphabet which suggests to me that he is just trying to convey a negative connotation with the alphabet. Since he doesn’t even think that they created it why did he have to spend three pages dissing Phoenicians? Shlain makes the argument that, “all forms of writing increase the left brain’s dominance over the right.” (67) I just don’t agree with this. I feel like yes the left brain is strengthened when we use our cones instead of our rods, our left hand instead of our right and concrete abstract thinking, but I think that there is a lot going on with writing that isn’t only in the left brain. When you write you need to draw on a lot of experiences and complex emotions and feelings from your past. Also writing is a way to put on paper those before intangible things that the right brain is famous for. Maybe it’s impossible to recreate that feeling with one word, but through detailed and creative descriptive writing you can try, and many writers have been very successful in doing so. People who have experienced this same feeling know what they are talking about and are taken to it. They feel that “all at once” feeling that was conveyed to them “one at a time.” I wasn’t sure how I felt about the last page, which kind of suggested that the alphabet somehow came from god because the first written letters came from the same place where the Ten Commandments were and that the oldest book was the Old Testament. I mean that’s strange because if they did… then… is he trying to say that the alphabet was made as some evil plot from a misogynistic mystical person who people still worship even to this day. I know he didn’t directly say this, but if you put his argument in context that’s what it kind of sounds like and it’s a little unsettling.

Question: What was your reaction to reading the last two pages of chapter 8 about how the first written letters came from the same place as the Ten Commandments and the connection that the Old Testament is the oldest written book?

Image from: The Ten Commandments. Web. 2 October. 2010. http://www.scott- warner.com/TenCommandments.html.

Book: Shlain, Leonard. “Aleph/ Bet.” The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image. New York: Penguin / Compass, 1998. Pp. 64-71.