I discussed some aspects of the ideas related to the Gutenberg Parenthesis, and there have always been some small, niggling issues which bothered me about most of the serious papers on this topic…
In almost every paper I have read, I feel a sense that the paper presents this as if it were an inexorable outcome to our civilization, and that this is a good thing. By implication this interstice (since the late 1400’s) is merely a small sidebar in the long story of human civilization.
If there is a simple recipe for pretentiousness, many of these articles and position papers fulfill then quite well…
I ran across this article, which presents some interesting points which we (as a large group…readers of magazines such as Time) have considered only a few years ago…that the invention of the Gutenberg printing press is the most important invention of the last 1,000 years. Obviously, this is an arguable answer to this question (albeit a very interesting one), but it also serves to deflate some of the ‘academic’ tone of many of these Gutenberg Parenthesis articles.
We may very well be moving beyond the tyranny of text, in the long term, and in the big picture (civilization level…big picture). I also think that trying to shoehorn in such current social phenomena as texting (the language used), and social networking sites and how people connect on them (mostly the use of Instant Messenger programs, and once again the curtailed use of written English) to this broader idea that we are moving into a world based upon discursive versus a contextual reality.
From Gutenberg to Google: New media? New journalism
http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/04/15/from-gutenberg-to-google-new-media-new-journalism/?awesm=tnw.to_17p7a
In 1997, Time-Life Magazine voted the printing press the most important invention of the last thousand years. That’s quite the accolade in a millennium that saw humans fly from London to New York in under four hours and astronauts play golf on the moon.
But the printing press enabled mass communication; it made books affordable and brought literacy to millions. It helped society advance and brought long-established hierarchies to their knees. The printed word heralded a massive evolutionary step for the information age.
Johannes Gutenberg probably didn’t know he was changing the world forever, but when he developed the printing press in the mid-15th century, he paved the way for the mass circulation of books, instructions, manuals, journals and, of course, newspapers.
And here we are, over 500 years later, and the printing press looks like it has finally met its match.
