Typographic America: Amusing Ourselves to Death, Chapter 3

Intro Ch. 1 Ch. 2 Ch. 3 Ch. 4 {pt 1} Ch. 4 {pt 2} Ch. 5 Ch. 6 Ch. 7 
Ch. 8 Ch. 9 {pt 1} Ch. 9 {pt 2} Ch. 10 Ch. 11

I'm more 'with it' and getting this up sooner than I thought I would! My written narration is seven pages so I will most likely be cutting some of that and just giving a 'gist of the idea' in a few spots. I have included links to other websites but these are not referenced in the book at all (no internet in 1985), nor do I endorse the content on the websites.

Part 1: Chapter 3 Typographic America

Here is an interesting take on the written word:

"...we fear that, if we should feel ourselves as if bound and confined by it {beliefs, principles, words written down}, and perhaps be unwilling to receive further improvement, and our successors still more so, as conceiving what we their elders and founders had done, to be something sacred, never to be departed from." -Michael Welfare, co-founder of the "Dunkers" (quoted by Postman, pg. 30, from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin)

Or in other words (as put by Postman): "Thou shalt not write down thy principles, still less print them, lest thou shall be entrapped by them for all time."

I find it unfortunate that the Dunkers did not write down their principles and beliefs. Now there is no record of them, other than through mentions such as above. {Edited: Postman said that we didn't know what their deliberations were. I did a Google search and found this site and this one, or here's a bit about "Michael Welfare" -so there is information out there. Postman didn't have Google or Wikipedia in 1985 *wink*} Apparently, unlike many other Colonial Americans, the Dunkers had a distrust of the printed word.

From here Postman relates just how much the colonists were into the printed word; they were avid readers (Postman: "dedicated and skillful"). On the Mayflower many books were part of the cargo, especially the Bible and Captain John Smith's Description of New England. In each colony funds were allocated to start a religious library. There was plenty of non-religious reading going on as well. In Boston, in the space of three years, one bookseller ordered over 3000 books, most of which were non-religious.

Postman gives three factors for such "preoccupation with the printed word. (pg. 32)"

1. They came to the colonies already readers.
2. After 1650 laws required "the maintenance of 'reading and writing' school"
   "The schooling of the young was understood by the colonists not only as a moral duty but as an intellectual imperative. (pg. 33)"
3. An entire library could be imported; "they didn't need to print their own books or even nurture their own writers."

Because of these factors there was a fairly high literacy rate, as far as can be determined from the available information. An interesting point about all this: "Reading was not regarded as an elitist activity. (pg. 34)" "Thomas Paine's Common Sense, published on January 10, 1776, sold more than 100,000 copies by March of the same year." According to Howard Fast, "a book published today would have to sell 24,000,000 copies to do as well. (pg. 35)" Postman equates such "collective attention" in America to watching the Superbowl. How sad.

Here Postman takes a moment to give us some food for thought pertaining to Paine. Postman compares Paine somewhat to Shakespeare, who has been questioned as the author of works attributed to him. Paine came from a lowly background and had little formal schooling yet no one in Paine's time and place questioned that a common man could possess such "powers of written expression."

Also a bit about Paine that is evident from the subtitle of his book: Written by an Englishman. The importance here is that the Americans still were not printing their own works. Ben Franklin argued that they were simply too busy doing other things. The printing press however, was not neglected in America. I found it interesting that in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at Harvard University, a printing press was put in place and not objected to by the Crown when in England cities such as Liverpool were forbidden to have one- by the Crown! It's amazing how much the colonists got away with in the early days. 

Americans were not printing books yet but they soon started with newsletters, and then newspapers. One newspaper started by Benjamin Harris, Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick, was printed to "combat the spirit of lying which then prevailed in Boston. (pg. 36)" He was sure that "none will dislike this Proposal but such as intend to be guilty of so villainous a crime." Indeed! He didn't get to print a second issue of his newspaper. It was suppressed because he "had printed 'reflections of a very high nature.'" Other newspapers however were soon being printed. 

'Tis truth (with deference to the college)
Newspapers are the spring of Knowledge,
The general source throughout the nation,
Of every modern conversation.
-New York Gazette, 1770

Along with newspapers were pamphlets- used to "combat each other's opinions...which are circulated for a day with incredible rapidity and then expire. (Alexis de Tocqueville, quoted pg. 37)" 

Next Postman talks about the rapid spread of printing throughout the country. People from North and South had access to the same printed material, and many individuals took advantage of the opportunity. Americans were not just reading works of non-fiction or political works; the novel, "not considered an altogether reputable use of time (pg. 38)," was eagerly consumed. And then we get a glimpse of what could be compared to the reception of a celebrity in our day. The arrival of a famous writer: Charles Dickens. Here's what Dickens said about the reception:

"There never was a King or Emperor upon earth so cheered and followed by the crowds, and entertained at splendid balls and dinners and waited upon by public bodies of all kinds...If I go out in a carriage, the crowd surrounds it and escorts me home; if I go to the theater, the whole house...rises as one man and the timbers ring again. (pg. 39)"

Harriet Beecher Stowe, native born to America of the time, wasn't greeted with such "adoring attention." Her book Uncle Tom's Cabin sold today's equivalent of four million.

With the spread of print were also "near universality of lecture halls [brought forth by] the Lyceum Movement. (pg. 39-40)" I'm not surprised I didn't know about this. The Lyceum Movement was a form of adult education usually associated with a New England Farmer, Josiah Holbrook. The movement had many goals, one of which included the "diffusion of knowledge". Postman does talk about the Lyceum Movement in the book but doesn't give as much info as I want, so I searched and found this site.  By 1835, "practically every village had its lecture hall. (Alfred Bunn, quoted pg. 40)" 

"The Lyceums in New England were progressive democratic institutions. No one was barred from membership. Membership dues were very inexpensive and women and people of color were admitted. It was a place in which the entire community could gather to discuss new ideas and build consensus about local issues. Classes would include literature, philosophy, art appreciation, and the current science of the day. The Lyceums became the hosts for the Transcendentalist lecture circuit as well as the proving ground for the abolitionists and early feminists. Though there was the occasional heated political debate, most of the classes were designed to offer continuing education in many enriching aspects of life. Without television, films, radio or the Internet, the residents of rural communities were grateful for the connection to broader culture. The movement was instrumental in starting many local public libraries and public schools and colleges. (The New Orleans Lyceum)"

Some "leading intellectuals, writers and humorists" were invited to these lecture halls. Henry Ward Beecher, Horace Greeley, and Mark Twain are just a few.

What is Postman's point in giving all this background? It's to show that "America was as dominated by the printed word and an oratory based on the printed word as any society we know of. (pg. 41)" Quoting Richard Hofstadter: "The Founding Fathers were sages, scientists, men of broad cultivation..." Which could lead to Postman's conclusion {our conclusion as well?} that "America was founded by intellectuals." How many modern nations can truly say that?

"Print...became the model, the metaphor and the measure of all discourse." I can see where this is going. Tocqueville observed that "an American cannot converse, but he can discuss, and his talk falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he is addressing a meeting...(quoted pg. 42)"

To merely say that it was influential, is that adequate? Here Karl Marx is quoted: 

"Is the Iliad possible when the printing press and even printing machines exist? Is it not inevitable that with the emergence of the press, the singing and the telling and the muse cease; that is, the conditions necessary for epic poetry disappear. (pg. 43)" 

I can appreciate more what Marx meant through Postman's next words. "Max understood well that the press was not merely a machine but a structure for discourse, which both rules out and insists upon certain kinds of content and, inevitably, a certain kind of audience."

I've appreciated the history lesson in this chapter as well as the connection made between print and discourse. Having had print all my life, as well as television, and now the new advances of internet and all that it brings, it is somewhat difficult for me to separate them from what I understand to be 'discourse'; what I understand to be 'conversation'. The next chapter is titled The Typographic Mind and I'm eager to put it down as a post. It is a bit longer than the chapters have been thus far; 19 pages as compared to 13, 14, and 15. 

Next time, Chapter 4 The Typographic Mind