"The Goddess vs. the Alphabet: the conflict between word and image"

Leonard Shlain

Author

Abstract: This talk will propose that the invention of writing, particularly in its alphabetic form, rewired the brains of all who learned this skill. The effect of literacy has been immensely beneficial. Yet, as Sophocles once warned, "Nothing vast ever enters the life of mortals without a curse." In this slide-filled presentation, Dr. Shlain will explore the curse; how and why images, women's rights, the goddess, and feminine values all suffered at the outset of literacy -- patriarchy and misogyny, too, have been literacy's legacy.

Biography: LEONARD SHLAIN is the author of the acclaimed best-seller "Art and Physics: parallel visions of space, time, and light." He is the Chairman of Laproscopic Surgery at California-Pacific Medical Center. Viking will publish his new book (titled the same as this talk) in the fall of 1998 (advance copies will be available at the talk, courtesy of Printer's Inc. on California Ave).