Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Palimpsest

Subtitle: A History of the Written Word

Author: Matthew Battles

Narrator: Matthew Battles

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-18-15

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

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.

Critic Reviews:

"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)

Members Reviews:

A few kerns short

Palimpsest is a surface on which later writing is superimposed on effaced earlier writing, an apt title for this book which superimposes muddled thinking on what might have been astute original insight.

It would be nice to call it "wooly thinking," which Guillermo Algaze suggests is the earliest example of written communication, but this book doesn't rise to that level. At least seven thousand years ago, according to Algaze, after residents of Uruk realized wool was a much better commodity than flax, they needed a system of symbols to keep track of sheep and wool and ownership. Thus, the first written symbols were created to track commercial dealings. It was the start of what became cuneiform, used for perhaps four thousand years.

However, the invention of writing doesn't seem to be Battles' intent. Unless I'm mistaken (it's been known to happen), he is stumbling about looking for the impact writing has on human thought and attitudes. To start, one cannot do better than the Inuit description of writing, "words stay put."

It's a significant change from oral histories and legends. Great stories can be remembered on everything from quipu cords to poetic cadence from Gilgamesh to the Iliad to Beowulf. But, even the best memories are malleable compared to "words stay put" in written form. Battles' intent seems to be the changes in mental attitudes in response to writing - - but, who can tell?

Instead, he stumbles about with a jackdaw of quotes, quips and ideas and never seems to find a central coherent theme. It's a bureaucrat's muddle of ideas, very much the opposite of a scholar's useful focus. It is an example of the craft and technology of relying on quotes instead of original insight.

This book is truly a palimpsest; the prime examples were medieval scholars who erased the great works of Greek writers to write learned and scholarly and erudite descriptions of how many angels could dance on the head of a pin.