Understanding McLuhan/Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso/pc/mcluhan.dxr/08392_Field_TCGG T157.txt

Text File | 1996-04-10 | 906b | 16 lines

     of printing and the typewriter, and the extensive use of
     shorthand-writing, is the best evidence for its suitability
     to serve the needs of the whole modern world. It is this
     simplicity, adaptability and suitability which have secured
     the triumph of the alphabet over the other systems of
     writing.
          Alphabetic writing and its origin constitute a story
     in themselves; they offer a new field for research which
     American scholars are beginning to call “alphabetology.”
     No other system of writing has had so extensive, so
     intricate and so interesting a history.

     Diringer’s observation that the alphabet is “now
universally employed by civilized peoples” is a bit tautological
since it is by alphabet alone that men have detribalized or
individualized themselves into “civilization.” Cultures can rise far