The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image (Compass)

by Leonard Shlain (Author)

231 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0140196016

ISBN-10: 0140196013

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This groundbreaking book proposes that the rise of alphabetic literacy reconfigured the human brain and brought about profound changes in history, religion, and gender relations. Making remarkable connections across brain function, myth, and anthropology, Dr. Shlain shows why pre-literate cultures were principally informed by holistic, right-brain modes that venerated the Goddess, images, and feminine values. Writing drove cultures toward linear left-brain thinking and this shift upset the balance between men and women, initiating the decline of the feminine and ushering in patriarchal rule. Examining the cultures of the Israelites, Greeks, Christians, and Muslims, Shlain reinterprets ancient myths and parables in light of his theory. Provocative and inspiring, this book is a paradigm-shattering work that will transform your view of history and the mind.

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About the Author

Leonard Shlain is the author of Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time & Light, and The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image. He is the chief of laparoscopic surgery at California Medical Center in San Francisco.

Series: Compass
Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books (September 1, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0140196013
ISBN-13: 978-0140196016
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 231 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #92 in Books > Textbooks > Social Sciences > Gender Studies
- #197 in Books > Textbooks > Social Sciences > Anthropology
- #199 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Anthropology > General

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travel light and smiling

The stereo brain... threat or menace?

March 8, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

The author comes right out of the gate with his theory that because of the structure of writing, it has been used as something to dominate women.
Writing is linear, left-brain activity. That, evidently, is not a natural tendency of women. Before that howl leaves your mouth, my own experience is that very few people are proficient at using both sides of their brain, and in that group, very few can use both sides simultaneously.For those of you-- the majority of people-- who let one side of the brain dominate, let me say that you are trying to run a successful race by hopping on one leg.
I am a very left-handed male, which makes me very right-brained. I am also capable of analytical thinking to the extent that I am well-paid to do it.
More people can do this. To the extent that Schlain's book opens up a discussion on how to get all brains operating in stereo, great.

The analytical types, for both good and ill, have organized and tend to dominate the world. Women need to accept themselves and be accepted by men as capable of analytical perception, and their right-brain skills need to be welcomed as essential contributions to progress. Now, put this in a mirror, and see what men ought to do. As I read the work, Hegel's master/slave relationship discussion looms large and close.

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Kate

The Alphabet Versus the Goddess

July 28, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I heard about this book when Charlie Rose interviewed the authors daughter...they both had great things to say about the author; and I wondered how I had missed his texts. So I immediately ordered this book. It did not disappoint. As a history buff, and one who has always had an interest in religion, anthropology and the social sciences; this provided a large paradigm shiff in thinking.
Brain science has been uncovering a lot of information on left-right brain functioning, brain pathologies, and man's ability to make reasonable decisions.
I had always been dismayed by the sheer insanity of violence wrought in the name of religion, the pyschosis that has plagued so much of our history as a species. Intrigued by minds that are fixated on the literal "word", while ignoring the frailities of those who at a later date set down the oral history of some of the greatest prophet-philosopher-gods. As a Catholic, I was only too aware of the way the mysogyny of the interpreters of the original gospel texts altered orifginal transcriptions and skewed and censored out portions of the oral history that clashed with their views of the world. Within Christianity there has probably been more research of all existing texts and documents to see that "The Word" has been distorted in ways that have not served either humanity as a whole or the message of Christ. It would be an error to assume that similar alterations did not occurr in all major religions whose written texts appears years after their prophets waked the face of the earth. Much like history which is often the story of the victor with no in depth understanding of the vanquished who is generally demonized by the author of any text, the history of man is altered the same way. It take a lot of reading to ferret out texts that tell the other side of any story in a way to obtain a clearer picture of what was occuring; and even with this effort any reader has to acknowledge that the predujices of the reader and the reader's culture often colors the final conclusion.
This is a very engagng book, and offers a compelling theory of what lead societies and cultures to descend into periods of total madness and depths of terror and mayhem that have always made us despair in our capacity to inflict unspeakable horrors and genocide of those identified as "others", "heretics" and "infidels": and our quickness to demonize those who fail to see the world the way we see it.
Thought provoking this text alters the way we think about our global history. It definitely should be a must read for anyone who wants to understand what hierarchies can wrought. It is through knowledge that we have the potential not to repeat the errors of our past.

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Nova137

Bit too biased conclusions not supported well enough ultimately spoils this work

November 26, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The author's main premise resides within the assumption that the rise in linear, logic-based left-brain maps, throughout history leads to the introduction of writing and the oppression of woman. The secondary part of his premise is that this rise is at the expense of the non-linear, intuition-based right-brain maps, throughout history, of our species primary picture-forming process. He ties this to the oppression of woman, the creation of the image-less god of Monotheism, the wantonness of the Greeks, and many similar trends from other primitive cultures after the introduction of writing into their cultures. This work is well researched and well written, attempts to be fair-minded, but suffers ultimately, IMO, from hypothesis bias (many justifications for his conclusions are not well enough correlated, but appear to simply be coincidences). Otherwise biasing a potential source of real knowledge about the evolutionary struggle of the human mind to develop out of and look back at where it was imprisoned; itself a prison maker.

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Amazon Customer

) and it's 26 letter alphabet is humankind's greatest blessing as well as our greatest curse

October 28, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Unbelievable book. This explains so many of the injustices of our present day Society. Our versatile & powerful English language (500,000 words from 26 letters!) and it's 26 letter alphabet is humankind's greatest blessing as well as our greatest curse.

Long Live the Goddess and sacred Feminine and all that she stands for! "For too long has it been a 'Man's World', with Woman in her place, down with all that I say and empower woman with her loving grace!" -- Heman Chase Mill Hollow NH

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Parris Ja Young

maybe an answer to an old question

July 7, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The physical book is in good shape. It DOES contain some notes from a previous reader, but I do not mind, in fact, those scribbled marginalia offer some entertaining argument. The book arrived in a timely manner, BTW.

As far as content is concerned, I have often wondered where this apparently world-wide attack upon women sprang from. I have tried several threads and found so satisfying answer. This book, positing as it does a left-brain - right-brain approach and explanation is better than any other answer I have found. Whereas I don't agree on every point, and in fact disagree quite strongly with the author's guess that human development must be artifact-bound, I find myself entertained and inspired by most of the development of Shlain's thought.
What an interesting thought! I would recommend this book to anyone who delights in pursuit of lore and has wondered about the reason human admiration shifted from the feminine to the masculine.

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