Ewan Clayton

This book is a history of the evolution f western writing, everything from the development of the Roman alphabet from Ancient Mediterranean cultures, the development of different writing styles, the use of different writing implements from reeds to quilles to steel nibbed pens, and the use of different mediums to write on from marble blocks and papyrus to paper and computers. The book includes many other interesting tidbits such as the increase in literacy, the development of the book, record keeping, increased use of writing in corporations, the development of the post-office, the printing press, the novel, graffiti and the computer. While the book was interesting and informative, I found the writing style to be somewhat pedantic.… (altro)

I think Clayton just tried too hard. He has a point which is probably quite profound. It has to do with the place of writing in human existence, at the individual and social level and really as a core dimension of the play between individual and society that gives human existence its deep character.

How to get such a profound point across? Ha, maybe Clayton was going a bit down the track that Charles Darwin set for himself. To establish a fundamental truth requires the marshaling of a body of evidence that spans the range of implications of that truth. Darwin got frightened into publishing before he was really ready, by Wallace beating him to the finish line. I wonder if Clayton got pushed into publishing somehow. He covers a vast range of history and cultural phenomena, but never really digs into any aspect or phase with the intensity that could really pull the reader into intimate grappling at the level he is attempting to plumb.

Clayton covers a vast range of history, from ancient Egypt to the internet. He skims across dozens of writing systems, touching on details of shapes... but how, anyway, does one bracket a serif? We are told about ways to cut nibs and the chemical makeup of lithographic resist and how the nozzles on cans of spray paint can be interchanged... but these points are just touched and never really given thorough analysis.

Often one can say more by saying less, and I think that approach might have worked better here. It is wonderful that Clayton had a career that encompassed such a wide range, but I think this book would have communicated more effectively had it been less a reflection of his career and more a reflection of some particular event and how the full depth of human experience is folded into that event. A tighter focus would have made the book richer.

But there really is a grand heap of fun here. I ordered a book by David Jones and a biography of him, that's the path I chose to follow from here. The notes and references are very rich - a great mine of starting points! As an introductory survey to writing systems, this is really quite a good book! It just wanders a bit too much to give it enough coherence to make a solid point, to hit hard, to be great. But hey, a great book is no easy thing to write!… (altro)