Comments on: abecedaria: Susan McCarthy’s blog on writing systems

by: Suzanne McCarthy

Sat, 09 Jul 2005 00:49:07 +0000

I am now reading Johanna Drucker. It is indeed a great book - full of information, along with Richard Firmage’s “An Alphabet Abecedarium.” Somehow they each have chosen different illustrations for the same topic so I can read them well together.

The only other author who comes close to Drucker on the Middle Ages is Julia Kristeva “Language: The Unknown”.

Actually there is a very interesting thread in Drucker about the history of writing system science including Isaac Taylor. I have also read Philippe Berger, Cohen and Fevrier in French and hope one day to translate bits into English in my blog. They have not been translated yet. Drucker is one of the few people I have read that reference these authors.

Suzanne

by: Suzanne McCarthy

Tue, 14 Jun 2005 07:40:18 +0000

That is an interesting question about Isaac Taylor that I have been thinking about for a while. But Taylor affected everyone who came after him.

by: gary

Tue, 14 Jun 2005 04:50:50 +0000

I look forward to your comments on Logan, but I dont’ know if I will read it myself. I do have pretty strong bias against him.

You might be interested in Johanna Drucker’s The Alphabetic Labyrinth: The letter in history and imagination, 1995, London: Thames & Hudson (my brief note: http://www.citeulike.org/user/garyfeng/article/227190).

On page 31 she mentioned the work by Isaac Taylor (1899):

“Taylor stated tat the outset the clear superiority he accorded alphabetic writing over that of other scripts, whose complexity led to the ‘degeneration of religion into magic, knowledge into superstition, and the increased caste separation of the learned rulers from their unlettered subjects.’ By contrast, a civilization which adopted alphabetic writing was capable of unlimited progress.”

Sounds like Logan but 100 years earler.

by: Suzanne McCarthy

Tue, 14 Jun 2005 03:14:08 +0000

Yes, the Japanese use of Kanji is a counter example. I am working on a blog about Robert Logan’s book, which I happen to have, by misadventure. It will take a few days. He made a few interesting changes in his new edition. Peculiar.

I will probably blog more about literacy education at some point. Your blog is the best one on writing sytems that I have seen yet. Language Hat is lots of fun too. (And I have no idea how RSS feeds work.)