Linear vs. Non Linear or, Masculine vs. Female

A great video that explains how profound the change is of living in a non-linear world.

Some people describe the alphabet as masculine whereas, the web is feminine This has deep implications as to how culture is created, how business is created, how organisations are structured.

In the mind bending book The Alphabet vs. the Goddess and one that I Personally would highly recommend, Leonard Shlain

proposes that the process of learning alphabetic literacy rewired the human brain, with profound consequences for culture. Making remarkable connections across a wide range of subjects including brain function, anthropology, history, and religion, Shlain argues that literacy reinforced the brain's linear, abstract, predominantly masculine left hemisphere at the expense of the holistic, iconic feminine right one. This shift upset the balance between men and women initiating the disappearance of goddesses, the abhorrence of images, and, in literacy's early stages, the decline of women's political status. Patriarchy and misogyny followed.

Shlain contrasts the feminine right-brained oral teachings of Socrates, Buddha, and Jesus with the masculine creeds that evolved when their spoken words were committed to writing. The first book written in an alphabet was the Old Testament and its most important passage was the Ten Commandments. The first two reject of any goddess influence and ban any form of representative art.

The love of Mary, Chivalry, and courtly love arose during the illiterate Dark Ages and plummeted after the invention of the printing press in the Renaissance. The Protestant attack on holy images and Mary followed, as did ferocious religious wars and neurotic witch-hunts. The benefits of literacy are obvious; this gripping narrative explores its dark side, tallying previously unrecognized costs.

Shlain goes on to describe the colossal shift he calls the Iconic Revolution, that began in the 19th century. The invention of photography and the discovery of electromagnetism combined to bring us film, television, computers, and graphic advertising; all of which are based on images. Shlain foresees that increasing reliance on right brain pattern recognition instead of left brain linear sequence will move culture toward equilibrium between the two hemispheres, between masculine and feminine, between word and image. A provocative, disturbing, yet inspiring read, this book is filled with startling historical anecdotes and compelling ideas.

These thought came to my mind whilst watching this video. I wonder if you agree? So is hypertext + the web feminine? As we know the male species is very linear. What is metrosexual man, but a feminising of the male identity?

Comments

[tim harrap]

This book by Leonard Shlain is a great work of imagination. I have just finished reading it and what a ride - he ties together so many dynamics of my past reading it is only now that you can "see" and consider the links and oppositions between cultural movements e.g. Taoism/Confucianism, Athens/sparta, id/superego ...it goes on and on. Thanks for the reference you should make the effort to haul Leonard Shlain into a bigger dialogue with CDB's.

Some might say that an imagination is an amorphous thing but the web is teaching us to imagine more broadly and more widely and Leonard Shlain has given us an historical grounding to this new environment so that we can be as you might say "metrosexual".

[Alan moore]

Tim - I never thought of asking Shalin to come over to the CDB side. But I had the same response in reading the man's book.

Excuse the French - Fucking Amazing was my rating.

And the thing is to reach out beyond the boundaries to the accepted and everyday.

In many ways and I do hope this does not sound arrogant - its what we did on CDB - we took an holistic view of what media/business/people meant to eachother at a moment of profound change.

That however does seem to be quite unusual.

Thanks for posting Tim