Palimpsest: A History of the Written Word

by Matthew Battles

Overview

A profound, eloquent meditation on the history of writing, from Mesopotamia to multimedia.

Why does writing exist? What does it mean to those who write? Born from the interplay of natural and cultural history, the seemingly magical act of writing has continually expanded our consciousness. Portrayed in mythology as either a gift from heroes or a curse from the gods, it has been used as both an instrument of power and a channel of the divine; a means of social bonding and of individual self-definition. Now, as the revolution once wrought by the printed word gives way to the digital age, many fear that the art of writing, and the nuanced thinking nurtured by writing, are under threat. But writing itself, despite striving for permanence, is always in the midst of growth and transfiguration.

Celebrating the impulse to record, invent, and make one's mark, Matthew Battles reenchants the written word for all those susceptible to the power and beauty of writing in all of its forms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393352924
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/12/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Matthew Battles is the author of Palimpsest and Library: An Unquiet History and a program fellow at the Berkman Center of Harvard University, where he is associate director of metaLAB, a research group exploring the bounds of networked culture.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Mind as Page 1

Books in Running Brooks 5

Origins and Nature 19

Pictures and Things 56

Writing and Power 87

Holy Writ 120

Logos Ex Machina 155

Afterword: Pace as Mind 217

Acknowledgments 223

Notes on Sources 227

Illustration Credits 239

Index 241

Editorial Reviews

"Traveling through centuries and across continents, Battles finds unexpected connections and echoes that resonate with our own day. Surely this is what life in Borges’s endless library must be."

Martin Puchner

"The reader and writing fan absorbed by writing's miscellany will find much to love and sink into in Palimpsest…. An enthusiastic, detailed account of writing throughout history."

Shelf Awareness, Starred Review - Julia Jenkins

"The written word changed literally everything, allowing for history, the law, and civilization itself. But rarely is it appreciated for its own sake and its own beauty. Matthew Battles has written an essential text on the essence of writing. Whether it turns out to be an ode or an elegy, we have yet to see."

Douglas Rushkoff

"From traces in clay to photon traces on the screens that surround us today, seeing roots and bones in the shapes of letters, Matthew Battles explores the deep origins and hidden structures of our written world. Scholarly and poetic, Palimpsest is a beautiful and engaging read for anyone who loves to write."

Ethan Zuckerman

"[E]xhilarating…. Battles is a gifted stylist, and his history of writing is both a paean to the powers of language and an extended demonstration of his own prowess. Nearly every page features an example of beautiful writing about writing."

Christian Science Monitor - Nick Romeo

"This fascinating exploration of the evolution of writing shows how, despite radical technological changes, the practice maintains its atavistic mystery…. And the history of the written word, as this book makes clear, reveals the evolution of the human mind."

The Wall Street Journal - W. Ralph Eubanks

"To call this book a profound meditation on what it means to be human would be to tell the truth but leave out all the fun. At once elegant and mischievous, Palimpsest is a great intellectual adventure that travels around the world on its way from the emergence of cuneiform to the future of cyberspace. It will charm and provoke any reader who has ever put pen to paper or typed into a text box, whether to attempt literature or scrawl today’s to-do list."

Elise Blackwell

"Anyone who can write a history of writing in fewer than 200 pages is either foolish or brilliant. Matthew Battles is brilliant. This is not an encyclopedic chronology but an extended essay that skips gracefully across the centuries, stopping wherever the most interesting stories lie."

Anne Fadiman

"[L]yrical…. [C]onsistently evocative…. In today's memoir-mad, self-published climate…“typing” has taken the place of “writing.” Battles’s work runs counter to this cultural moment, participating in and expanding the art that’s the focus of his history."

The Boston Globe - Michael Washburn

"Battles powerfully demonstrates that, though all forms of writing are imperfect, they have played a vital role in the cultures which have developed them." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review

From the Publisher

05/01/2015
Taking on the incredibly ambitious task of analyzing the history of the written word, Battles (Library: An Unquiet History) explores the origin of writing, as well as its evolution across mediums, forms, and cultures. The author presents an intriguing look at the early rise of writing as a method for communication and record keeping, particularly the use of signs and symbols in meaning making. Factoids on word usage are spread throughout, while references to Roman philosopher Cicero, author Charles Dickens, and others provide a thorough examination of writers' views on writing as a tool for effecting power, change, and meaning. Given the scope of Battles's project, the result is highly detailed and dense. VERDICT Thoroughly researched and thought provoking, this is a great selection for anyone with a vested interest in the anthropology and history of writing. This isn't an introductory work or a book for the casual reader; it's most suitable for academics and advanced scholars who possess some knowledge on the subject matter. [See Prepub Alert, 2/2/15.]—Gricel Dominguez, Florida International Univ. Lib.

Library Journal

★ 2015-04-12
An illuminating look at the origins and impact of writing. In this richly detailed cultural history, Battles (The Sovereignties of Invention, 2012, etc.), associate director of the research group metaLAB at Harvard, traces the evolution of writing from cuneiform in the fourth millennium B.C. to digital communications. Emerging as an accounting system in Mesopotamia, writing became evidence of power as well as a means of personal expression. It also changed the human mind; writing "exploits (and transforms) circuits in our brains….Writing teaches our brains to do all kinds of somersaults and tricks." Besides communicating immediate needs, writing allows for the transmission of cultural knowledge, bears witness to the past, and influences the future. All writing, Battles has discovered, is composed of "lines that cross, connect, and loop, and they arrange themselves into linear sets," whether it takes the form of Chinese characters, Egyptian hieroglyphics, or Greek, Sanskrit, or Cyrillic alphabets. Battles underscores the way writing shapes reading and thinking: "in the form of word and sentence, chapter and verse," he asserts, "writing teaches." The author highlights several texts as especially significant, including the saga Gilgamesh, unearthed from clay tablets, which imparted lessons about kingship and heroism that influenced later literature; and the Bible, which "hides its own writing from us in a haze of myths and mystical formulae." Before the printing press, hand copying made all books—including the Bible—vulnerable to changes: "Each instance of book production was a reading, and an editing." Movable type changed the production and availability of books, but early printed volumes allowed for ample margins so that illuminators could ply their craft. Battles deftly excavates layers of human history from a wide range of sources to reveal that writing "is always palimpsestic; there is no setting-down that is not a setting-among, a setting-upon." A fascinating exploration stylishly and gracefully told.

Kirkus Reviews