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Summary: A wonderful, intriguing, creative hypothesis
Review: A wonderful, intriguing, creative hypothesis; a very thought-provoking book. It's always fascinating to speculate on our own ancient history and the shaping of our brains.
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Summary: An important eye opener on the power of media forms.
Review: L. Shlain's reflective study of the printed alphabet's impact on the diminishing power of human imagery is most timely. Bringing hindsight on such a venerable form of communication as the alphabet to the fore hopefully will highlight the need to pay attention to other forms of communication and media, including powerful remote electronic imagery.Shlain's expose of what can go wrong with one form of media should make us examine the effects of other forms of media more cautiously, particularly if they remove mankind from his/her own innate sensing capacities. Toay's simulated images may just as easily become the masters of our future realities, as did the alphabet, if we are not educated as to the remarkably malleabe nature of the human mind and body to mimic and adapt to all types of repetitive images. I feel comfortable that the AvsG will open many eyes to what are truly evolutionary issues. Thank you, Dr.Shlain, for important work.
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Summary: Brain Integration leads to Social Integration
Review: I am sending this rather hastily pasted together draft to letmy professional colleagues, astrology buddies, and good friend whohave spent time with me in discussion all know about an exciting bookthat, while not focussed on astrology, bears some weight on the subject. I consider it important enough to write to you, letting you know about this article proposal at the same time for the astrological publication, The Mountain Astrologer. THE ALPHABET VS. THE GODDESS, by Leonard Shlain. I just interviewed this author to submit an article to the Mountain Astrologer. Shlain proposes that the polarization of the Brain and the effects of the hormones on the two lobes may just as well be the most important clue to the hysteria (he jousts, saying "Testicularia," instead) which has undermined the status of women since the beginning of time. Shlain splits history into pre-literate and post-literate and finds that the brain's Left Lobe is over-stimulated by any introduction of new communication or when literacy rates jump rapidly. A psychosis of witch hunts and paranoia always follows. He connects some of the most vicious movements against The Feminine as occuring immediately following inventions or importations of printing presses. Example: New Technology "Radio" carried Hitler's Voice. The whole thing chillingly places a history upon the brain lobes in a way that no one could have predicted would become obvious, but his erudition and the fact that the author is also a neurosurgeon lends enormous weight to this heretofore unknown argument. (A tour de force in writing and research!) His interview was revealing: Left Lobe "bathes" (his word) in testosterone, and Right Lobe in estrogen. Accordingly, Dr. Carl Jung and his analyst partner and wife Emma, who also saw a similarity (unknowingly, corroborating brain-lobe theories and results) in their theory on the Animus, explains the "masculine" party in the psychology of both men and women is subject to inflations. These two researchers are not alone in identifying the testosterone-aided self-aggrandizing of the ages; the ancients also symbolized this process in the mythologies surrounding the Sun, Saturn and Jupiter--all masculine archetypes--which could each become overreaching, extending their powers far and above over the rights and well-being of others, all for an intended "ideal." So, when the advent of literacy overcame these civilizations, the Mesopotamian peoples, the Hebrews, even recent Amazon adoption of the alphabet-literacy, all of them experienced similar events of change in their cultures. These changes included the reduction of women's roles in worship, culture, teaching, in any or all positions of power; the elevation of men's requirement of the "New Mistress" (literacy) over those who are not privileged enough to have it; and the new hierarchical pecking order which would make obsolete any previous veneration of the female. The fact that the astrological conferences and conventions are populated largely by women leads me to believe the audience which reads the Mountain Astrologer would like to know the History of the Right Brain in consciousness, the lobe identified as skilled in symbolic relationships, the one "fed" by estrogen. Such a history may lead to teaching the women devotees of this venerable subject to learn about their strengths, whether cultural, political or intellectual. Those scientific types with the "psychological inventory tests" may have actually marginalized the "Two Percent" of the population which exhibit the strongest show of what the Right-Brain can do: relate pattern, understand metaphor and symbol, percieve "globally," and incorporate compassion, feminine values into the lifestyle. This two percent of the population knows about the Right Brain, but has heretofore been relegated by the examiners, who may, at least "lobe-wise", be undoubtedly "Left-Brained". These test results may be measuring only those daring enough to allow their intuitive processes to be displayed for measuring, ordering and weighing with Left Brain Values. As astrologers, we have adapted, become accustomed to being "out of hand" rejected as "lefties" in a right-handed world. But the hope is that there is more to "Right-Brainedness" than just the current paradigm's rejection pile. More to the history of astrology than all the myths perpetrated by the mysoginists of history. The astonishing list of historical facts that lead to the importance of lobe-defined intelligence places the work of Emma Jung (Anima/Animus) and that of Morris Berman (The Re-Enchantment of the World) together in a matched arena of Left (Sun, Jupiter, Saturn) Right (Moon, Venus) archetypal sorts. What remains is the role of astrology (decidedly Right Brained) in a world so obviously in favor of the Left Brain-oriented quests for position, in which astrology must take a stand somewhere. But where? I hope to explore as much in my article. I'll make a bibliography for anyone who's interested. Let me know your impressions if you are so inclined.
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Summary: Brilliant new interpretation of history and the sexes
Review: I bought this book for my daughter at Xmas. I guess I'm going to have to get another copy as I'm keeping this one. A highly absorbing, well thought and argued hypothesis about how the development of alphabetic literacy has short-changed females throughout history. It brought together many random thoughts I had about the history of philosophy and religion and how it has swung to a male dominated culture and how the pendulum is starting to swing back - perhaps ominously for us males. I would put it on a par with "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" by Paul Kennedy, "The Lucifer Principle" by Howard Bloom and "A Distant Mirror" by Barbara Tuchman. Definitely a book for re-reading in the near future. My main quibble is that he wrongly identifies the inventor of TV (it was John Baird - from my alma mater!) Highly recommended Bill Eaton,CA
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Summary: Most thought provoking book I've read in 10 years!!!
Review: I heard Dr. Shlain on KPFA radio, and was so inspired I bought the book. The next 3 weeks of my life were lost in deep concentration as he traced the history of culture and religion. I was required to remember all the history I learned as a youth, and with that and an open mind, I viewed history with a new reference. I now understand why Waldorf teaches art before reading. The book is extremely thought provoking and I highly recommend it to everyone.
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Summary: A must-read paradigm shifter
Review: To the question, "why is the world the way it is - is there hope for a better tomorrow?" this book, impeccibly researched and based in hard evidence, gives answers that crystalize understanding. Instead of a vast, complex of incompehensible events we see Western thought transformed into a cascade of scenes arising from a specific trigger, alphabetic literacy. It identifies alphabetic literacy at its introduction and traces the impact across generations and centuries, not once, but over and over again through the more than two thousand year history of Western thought. We see how iconic literacy in Eastern thought brought about the world we witness in China and Japan today. We see the Earth-Mother cultures give way to Montheism as a constant shift of cultural imperatives based on left brain dominence. These trends are mapped in all of the venues for human action, economics, religion, war. The answer is biological. History becomes accessible, understandable, logical and therefore less frightening. The correllaries to the essential premise encompass every part of our lives. The world of the 21st century will be different because we have changed. The baby-boom generation, thought by some to be hopelessly flawed by television, has moved the world - and it is a change for tolerance, community and individual freedom. The identification of the trigger mechanism and the shift from left-brain dominence back to right-brain allows the reader to understand trends that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to predict. The reader is also left with the promise of a more benevolent future; one that matches the seemingly impossible visions we have dreamed. If you can read only one book on philosophy, politics, biology, futurism, or healing our planet, this should be the book.
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Summary: I got in an argument with my Dad over this book!
Review: I was drawn to title, I'd never heard of the author, and after just a few pages I found myself in several heated conversations with people about how writing changed the fate of women. My Dad stormed out of the room saying men and women could never have been equal at any time in history. I'm just riveted by Dr. Shlain's ability to weave the suppositions from archeologists, Biblical scholars, historians and neurologists into such an exciting, palatable, provocative and informative read. I've been aware of these characters or icons from history all my life, but I've never had any sense of relationship among these stories from different lands. This is the first text I've run across that stops to ask why do we know who these people are? How did they learn to write? Who were they before they wrote? What stories DIDN'T get written down? What did they have to sacrifice to learn to write? It wasn't until I read his chapters on the "adjustments" the Greek myths suffered that I realized as a girl studying those stories in school, they really did leave me feeling less valuable as a woman and guilty for disliking those female deities. Lo and behold, that's what they were designed to do! Still effective after 5,000 years. This is a remarkable text that should not be disregarded as feminist or fantasy. He's well-researched, offers several respected hypotheses to explain undocumented historical impacts and his presentation is enormously enjoyable.
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Summary: An interesting history book
Review: This book has an interesting topic. Analyzing the left and the right brain to decide masculine and femine power in the world. His thesis is that with the advent of the written culture(writing is a left brain function),man who's left brain is more developed, is able to supress the woman. This is interesting, and he sticks to his topic in the first quarter of the book, but past that he just goes into history. At first it has a relevant topic to his thesis, but after a while it is hard to see the link. He never goes back to his thesis in these history ventures, and this makes it hard to see why he is using the examples. The history is interesting to learn about, but he picks and chooses his facts, and does not state the full picture. This was a decent book to read, but I was a little upset with him straying from his main point. -RM
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Summary: a highly speculative book with an interesting thesis
Review: "The Alphabet versus the Goddess" presents an interesting thesis concerning the relationship between female status and alphabet literacy. But it is evident that Leonard Shalin has rather limited knowledge in non-medical fields such as psychology, greek mythology and art. Consequently his arguement that the advent of literacy denigrated the female image throughout time is often one-sided and only a small part of the big picture. Shalin eliminated contradictions to his own thesis by simply ignoring them. His refusal to acknowledge evidence which would serve as counterarguements to his own thesis dramatically weakens the validity of his claim. At times his thesis does not even seem convincing enough. Besides his claim that alphabet literacy stimulates the left brain which embodies masculine values, there is no additional analysis to link the alphabet to mass misogynistic behaviors except that the alphabet happen to be present at certain times in history when there were unexplainable female-shunning phenomenons. Furthermore, I personally remain skeptical to Shalin's claim that since Jesus Christ and Lao Tzu both respected women and their love lives remained obscure to historians, both of these prominent figures were most likely female. This argument is seriously flawed. But the same logic I could say that Shalin himself is a woman for writing such a feminine book.
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Summary: Brilliant survey of Western Civilization
Review: Leonard Shlain has written a brilliant survey of western civilization. His premise that the fall of women from positions of power due to the advent and proliferation of alphabet literacy is a must read for all who love the wriiten word. The dark side of literature as the root of all evil is a powerful argument. Shlain's inherent optimism is expressed in his analysis of what the integration of word and image mean for us on the dawn of the cyber age. Don't miss this book!!!!!!
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