Alphabet versus the Goddess Future Salon

Update: He will probably talk about his new book: Sex, Time and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution Even better :-)

Next Future Salon on Friday the 23rd of February. Please RSVP (http://tinyurl.com/33qnqn)

Drew Gilpin Faust is the first woman President of Harvard University, Hillary Clinton may be the first Women president of the US in 2008, at least right now she is the front runner of the Democratic Party. How come that Women are gaining influence now?

Leonard Shlain the author of The Alphabet Versus The Goddess may argue it is a proof that the proliferation of images in film, TV, graphics and computers is once again reconfiguring the brain by encouraging right hemispheric modes of thought that are encouraging the reemergence of the feminine.

Here his abstract to his Alphabet versus the Goddess Future Salon presentation:

This multimedia power point presentation containing over 300 images proposes that the rise of alphabetic literacy – the process of reading and writing – fundamentally reconfigured the human brain, and brought about profound changes in history, religion, and gender relations. Making remarkable connections among brain function, myth, and anthropology, Dr. Shlain shows why pre-literate cultures were principally informed by holistic, right-brain modes that venerated the Goddess, feminine values, and images. Writing, particularly alphabets, drove cultures toward linear left-brain thinking. This shift upset the balance between men and women, initiating the decline of the feminine and also ushered in the reign of patriarchy and misogyny. Examining the cultures of the Israelites, Greeks, Christians, and Muslims, he reinterprets many myths and parables in light of his theory. Shlain traces the affect of literacy on the Dark Ages, Mary, Gutenberg, the Reformation and the Witchcraze.

Shlain ends with an optimistic appraisal that the proliferation of images in film, TV, graphics and computers is once again reconfiguring the brain by encouraging right hemispheric modes of thought that are encouraging the reemergence of the feminine. A provocative, inspiring, and visually arresting presentation filled with startling historical anecdotes and fresh compelling ideas. It is a paradigm-shattering work that will transform your view of history and the mind.

A Future Salon has the following structure: 6-7 networking with light refreshments proudly sponsored by SAP. From 7-9+ pm presentation and discussion. SAP Labs North America, Building D, Room Southern Cross or Cafeteria depending on your  responds.  Please RSVP (http://tinyurl.com/33qnqn), 3410 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304 [map] As always free and open to the public, spread the news.

If you can't join in person we will Webcast the event: Point your Quicktime viewer to the following address: rtsp://207.105.30.90/salon.sdp

IRC chat as always use the server: irc.freenode.net and the Channel: #futuresalon

About the Author

Leonard Shlain is the Chairman of Laparoscopic surgery at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco and is an Associate Professor of Surgery at UCSF.  He is also the author of three critically acclaimed, national bestselling, award-winning books.  His first, Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light, (HarperCollins) was published in 1991, and is presently used as a textbook in many art schools and universities.  The LA Times called it a “Tour de Force” and the New York Times Book Review  was equally enthusiastic   A&P  has also been translated into foreign languages. 
Viking published his second book, The Alphabet Versus The Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image, in hardcover in 1998 and within weeks it was on the national bestseller list. Penguin distributed his book internationally in 1999 and it is now available in paperback. The Washington Post called it “Bold and fascinating,” George Steiner in the London Observer wrote that it was “Provocative and Innovative.” The New York Times’ Idea Section discussed his thought provoking theory. David Gergen interviewed Dr. Shlain for The Jim Lehrer News Hour and Frank Stasio did the same for National NPR.  His new book Sex Time and Power: How Women’s Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution achieved national bestseller status in hardcover by Viking and the Quality Paperback Book Club chose ST&P as the best non-fiction paperback in 2004 in its New Visions category. The History Channel interviewed Dr. Shlain for its program on Leonardo and PBS’s did the same for Children of the Code
Dr. Shlain lectures widely both here and in Europe.  He has been a keynote speaker for such diverse groups as the Smithsonian, Harvard, Florence Academy of Art, Salk Institute, Phillips collection, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center, and the European Union’s Ministers of Culture. 
Dr. Shlain has won several literary awards for his visionary work and also holds several patents on innovative surgical devices.  He is presently working on two books, Leonardo’s Brain: The Left/Right Roots of Creativity and Enough to Make Leonardo Smile: The Reciprocal Sayings of Artists and Physicists.

Comments

[V LaRoche]

I haven't read the book, but I've read reviews, excerpts, and interviews with the author. From what I've seen, he makes a lot of post-hoc assertions and unsupported claims about literacy leading to war and there being "masculine" and "feminine" hemispheres of the brain. His very simplistic, albeit irresistibly seductive, thesis (a man saying we're goddesses and victims!) seems to be "women, who are truly goddesses and should rule again as they once rightly did (burn incense here, clang bell), are victims of bad men (again); if we watch more television, everything will work out fine. Books are bad, literacy kills."