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Summary: Our Language Shapes Us
Review: Dr. Shlain, a surgeon by profession, dissects the neurological process whereby the way we process language shapes us. This is a right-brain insight. The irony of having to try to express it in linear narrative isn't lost on the author. But the insight casts a revealing new light on the human story. The editors might have helped by checking a stray fact here and there--and left-brain-types may be upset. Maybe the book should have been formatted to read right-to-left like a Hebrew text. The writing style is lively; the book is fun to read. You won't like it if you live in the left-brain cage. But if you can let your creative self hang on and enjoy the roller-coaster ride, you're in for an exciting time and a mind-altering experience.
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Summary: Intriguing Thesis Gone Wrong
Review: Dr. Shlain has an intriguing thesis. However, his attempts at supporting it go from somewhat plausible to rather ridiculous. His explanations of characteristcs of left and right brain were commendable, but I could hardly contain my annoyance when he began descriptions of how Christian religion proves his thesis. Dr. Shlain clearly does not understand Christianity, nor are his facts about the history of the Jewish people around the time of the Exodus accurate. This book is perhaps worth reading, and certainly its arguments are compelling, but the evidence does not come together.
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Summary: A treasure for understanding eons of human development!
Review: I am recommending Leonard Shlain's book, The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, to everyone I meet. This book is a real treasure!. From the alphabet to the internet, we can see the loss and now the recovery of right brain imagery. We need the balance for our next round of evolution here on this planet.Having grown up as a minority in a majority-controlled, fear-based religion, I have worked many years to find a way in which I could belong. I have learned that encapsulated theologies are representative of dying systems which build walls around a homogeneous group (e.g. the Shakers). They also can reach a critical mass of like minded believers which try to legislate their morality, sometimes leading to gendercide. We are over dosed on this kind of logic and need a refreshing return to intuition and imagination.I especially admire Dr. Shlain's ideas in the chapter on Jesus. Jesus replaced the second commandment, giving us hope that we may someday learn to love one another. I look forward to the next book, and am wondering if research on the function of the frontal lobes may show that we are evolving more into the path toward empathy and altruism?
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Summary: provocative critique of human culture
Review: We are lucky if we encounter once in our lives SOMETHING that forces us to reconsider who we think we are, the basic assumptions we make, individually and collectively, about the origins of culture. I've been lucky enough to find two books that have forced me to examine myself and my fundamental thinking about what makes us human. Carl Jung's ANSWER TO JOB and Leonard Schlain's ALPHABET VERSUS THE GODDESS both shake the foundations of how we, at least in the Western world, define ourselves, and, consequently, define the divine. I found myself, over the course of the week I spent reading The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, stopping to reconsider what his thesis meant to my understanding of art, politics, intimacy, my career as an English teacher, how I was raised, how I learned to read. Dr. Schlain gives us tools to reflect on the forces that hold us in their grip -- image and written word. I can see how some might find themselves challenged by Dr. Schlain's scholarship and compelling thesis and find themselves resisting the reflection and reconsideration the book demands. This work is not for the dogmatic nor the defensive. It is for those who sincerely question the foundations of their world view.
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Summary: Solving The Goddess Riddle
Review: Dr. Leonard Shlain's book "The Alphabet Versus The Goddess" presents a brilliant theory regarding literacy, imagery and the demise of goddess worship. As a surgeon and physician, Dr. Schlain's knowledge of brain hemispheres and the physiology of the eye provides the credibility for his thesis that a simple historian would lack. Dr. Shlain's presentation of the suppression of women throughout history is a long-overdue response by a male writer who brings a wealth of medical and historical research to support his stance. "The Alphabet Versus The Goddess" is a provoking analysis of women's standing throughout many different periods and cultures, and offers hopeful evidence that a balance between the two genders is increasing as we are saturated with the imagery of film, television and the internet. It should be required reading for every student of history, literature, art and the evolution of humankind.
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Summary: Sloppy Scholarship, Flimsy Thesis
Review: Shlain seems to think that if he keeps throwing information at his readers, they will be impressed (or overwhelmed) by the wide-ranging research he must have done, and be convinced of his thesis. But all he's actually done is read some books by other people and present their sometimes controversial ideas as facts; this is the essence of sloppy scholarship. A notable example is showcased on page 382, where there is a photo supposedly of "Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce." But it's not Hanmaton Yalatkik ("Chief Joseph"); it's a member of one of the Plains Indian nations, as can be seen clearly from his eagle feather headdress (the Nez Perce were not Plains Indians). If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is the worth of a picture with a wildly innaccurate caption? Toward the end of the book he discusses EEGs, which measure brain waves. The dominant brain wave when reading a printed page, he tells us, is the beta wave, while the dominant wave when a person watches TV is the alpha wave. But there's another activity where the dominant one is the alpha wave: meditation. Here he's clever, because he never equates watching TV with meditating; but the entire structure of the book is meant to bring the reader to that very conclusion. Why doesn't Shlain tell us which brain wave is dominant when we eat, or dream, or have sex? Studies of these activities have been conducted since the EEG was invented, but too many relevant facts threaten his thesis, so a fuller context must be ignored. This isn't just sloppy scholarship--this is manipulation.
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Summary: A fascinating read!
Review: 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.
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Summary: A fascinating, funny, oh-my-gosh-I-never -realized THAT!
Review: Once in a blue moon a book comes along that changes how you perceive and understand the world around you - its history, peculiarities, anachronisms and cultural shifts. Alphabet is one of these. As a calligrapher and writer, it enthralled me, led my thinking along paths it had not wandered before. A trip worth taking. Don't let the title put you off. This is not a new-age pro-feminist diatribe, it is a bold look at the balance of male and female archetypes and their dance through time and place. Wonderful!
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Summary: Transforming!
Review: Some books can transform your world view. This book has done that for me. I will never look at history, religion, politics, science, art or anything with the same eyes again. What a stimulating book!
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Summary: At last! Real insight into the disappearance of the goddess!
Review: The "warring hordes from the North" theory never did hold water in my book, and now Leonard Shain offers us his beautifully written version of the story. I felt historically "accounted for" for the first time in reading his book, and am enjoying the range of readers' responses, including the expected outrage from those who would safeguard the accepted theories. Whether or not every detail is "true" is of little concern to me, as I am more concerned with our willingness as individuals and as a culture to embrace new perspectives. For this reason, I am sharing this book with the graduate students in my Innovative Methods in Education course. I believe that the biggest gift we can offer as teachers is open-mindedness and creativity, and I hope that my students will pass this gift on to their students, and so on, and so on. Bravo and thanks to you, Dr. Shlain!
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