(deep) in print

In “The Printed Page”, Steven Fischer examines the progression of cultural changes resulting from the development of Gutenberg’s printing press in the mid-15^th century. The author details a 400-year history a history in which multiple social-economic forces promoted, opposed, and ultimately shaped the print dominated culture of 19^th century Europe and North America. Fischer provides a lot of information in this chapter, but there are two areas in particular that I think are especially relevant to our coming discussions. The first is the context of events and circumstances the made the late 15^th that made possible the success of the printing revolution. These include:

• The recent availability of paper
• The 1453 conquest of Constantinople that led to many Greek-speaking scholars to migrate to northern Europe.
• A pre-existing robust literate class that made the early stages of the print industry financially viable.
• The attributes of the Greek alphabet that make it uniquely suitable for the mechanics of the press.
• The rise of a bourgeoisie class. (This was both an influenced on and influenced by the development of the printing press.)

The second area that relates directly to the scope of this class describes the social changes that can be attributed to the printing press. A few of the most remarkable are”

• Reading and learning were no longer restricted to the universities and monasteries, but (slowly) became available to anyone able to afford the increasingly affordable book.
• Reading became a more individual and private activity. People no longer had to rely on other’s reading and interpretation. Communal orthodoxy gave way to individual opinion.
• The drive and failure by authorizes to control the dissemination of information.
• The development of national literatures, which contributed to the development to a sense of a national common culture, which contributed to the development of nationalism.

As you read through this chapter, consider how these changes and contexts may relate to the current development of digital media.

The second set of readings are from Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. In these two chapter’s, Postman picks up Fischer’s story in the late 18^th century to portray a pre-electronic America culture that is dominated by print. Here he argues that this dominance is evidenced not just by the number of presses, publications, or literate citizens, but in the public discourse and intellectual development of colonial and 19^th century America as well. Postman believes that the capacity and enthusiasm of the citizenry for objective, well reasoned, and well articulate discourse was a direct consequence of print. He is careful to point out that this does not mean that a person coming from on oral tradition does not have the capacity for object, reasoned thought, but that it is because of the dominance of print that this capacity and drive are (in Postman’s view) a defining characteristic of 19^th century American culture.

It is important to keep in mind that Postman’s overarching argument is that the ascendance of modern mass media (especially television and motion pictures) are causing a degradation in our ability to and desire for the kind of public discourse that he believes once defined American civic life. Keep in mind current arguments about the impact of the internet and social media and current discourse and social engagement.

October 12 Readings

“The Printed Page” / Steven Fisher / From A History of Reading

“Typographic America” and “The Typographic Mind” / Neil Postman / From Amusing Ourselves to Death