By Paul V. Montesino
No, I am not trying to tell you to start a romantic relationship with the newspaper in your hands or the web page on your computer screen. I’m talking about your mind and the opportunity you and others enjoy reading news and opinions. For centuries, many folks did not enjoy that freedom, they were forbidden by edict of law or religion, or both, to do it.
However, that ban was not based on legal or religious constraints alone. Technology played a big part. In the United States, “during the 17th century, the curriculum in the common (elementary) schools of the New England colonies was summed up as the ‘four Rs’ – ‘Reading,’ ‘Riting,’ ‘Rithmetic’, and ‘Religion.’” (Wikipedia)
We didn’t get here in one step. It took hundreds of years of technological changes, many wars of liberation or rebellion and thousands of gallons of spilled blood to give us a right to read, write or publish ideas that may be offensive to others. That’s called freedom of opinion.
From antiquity until about the year 1440, ideas spread by word of mouth or in reading devices unavailable to the general reading and writing public. Only senior political and religious leaders had access to those resources. Whether the leaders became readers, or it was the other way around, one can always speculate. It is not a farfetched conclusion to believe that reading wasn’t available by accident or design to many illiterate folks, and as for writing, the practice was limited to the power of tyrannical forces.
In ancient Egypt it was clay tablets, papyrus, and later wax tablets and paper, in that order. Imagine how difficult it was to have access to those means as a reader, never mind as a writer. How would you feel holding a clay tablet in your hands trying to find out who is running for mayor in Lawrence this year? And, most of all, could you afford to buy that clay tablet? I’m sure in that case you’d rather eat than read and forget the election cycle.
But time went on. In the year 1440 or so, something happened that would eventually make it easier for you to get this copy of Rumbo: a German printer named Guttenberg invented the printing press. Of course, printing wasn’t and still isn’t an inexpensive proposition. To recover the high overhead costs of such effort the books not only must sell, but must do it in high volume.
The impact of Guttenberg’s invention was wide and lasting. We owe the religious Reformation of Martin Luther to the widespread use of the printed bible. Cervantes’ writings date the fifteen hundred and William Shakespeare’s creative work was about the same time. Although still much being debated, it is said that both died the same day or at least around the same date.
It would take another five hundred and sixty-seven years, until 2007 to be exact, for the writing, reading and publishing of books to take off: Amazon’s invention of the Kindle. There are thirteen web site servers with the Amazon name in as many countries and they are in seven different languages. Barnes and Noble and Smashwords.com are also in the Internet publishing word. For those dreaming about selling books, there could be no better promising publishing alternative. We are talking about millions of books and billions of potential readers.
Does this democratization of literature mean we have better ideas or better choices? Who knows. But it certainly means that no idea will go unnoticed, no point of view ignored. The issue is not one of availability, but one of smart choice as a reader. It is your job to choose and, as I said, hang onto your Rumbo copy. It has a long historical and technological ancestry.
And that is my point of view today.
