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The Letter and The Cosmos: How The Alphabet Has Shaped The Western View of The World 1st Edition Laurence de Looze
The Letter and The Cosmos: How The Alphabet Has Shaped The Western View of The World 1st Edition Laurence de Looze
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THE LETTER AND THE COSMOS
From our first ABCs to the Book of Revelation’s statement that Jesus is
“the Alpha and Omega,” we see the world through our letters. More
than just a way of writing, the alphabet is a powerful concept that has
shaped Western civilization and our daily lives. In The Letter and the
Cosmos, Laurence de Looze probes that influence, showing how the
alphabet has served as a lens through which we conceptualize the world
and how the world, and sometimes the whole cosmos, has been per-
ceived as a kind of alphabet itself. Beginning with the ancient Greeks,
he traces the use of alphabetic letters and their significance from Plato
to postmodernism, offering a fascinating tour through Western history.
A sharp and entertaining examination of how languages, letterforms,
orthography, and writing tools have reflected our hidden obsession
with the alphabet, The Letter and the Cosmos is illustrated with copi-
ous examples of the visual and linguistic phenomena which de Looze
describes. Read it, and you’ll never look at the alphabet the same way
again.
________________________________________________________________
P211.D44 2016 411 C2015-908590-X
________________________________________________________________
Preface ix
Abbreviations xv
Illustrations xvii
1 Introduction 3
Notes 179
Works Cited 195
Illustration Credits 209
Index 211
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Preface
Writing exists only in a civilization and a civilization cannot exist without writing.
I.J. Gelb, A Study of Writing
Il parlait de A qui est comme une grande mouche avec ses ailes repliées en
arrière; de B qui est drôle, avec ses deux ventres, de C et D qui sont comme la
lune, en croissant et en moitié pleine, et O qui est la lune entière dans le ciel noir.
Le H est haut, c’est une échelle pour monter aux arbres et sur le toit des mai-
sons; E et F, qui ressemblaient à un râteau et à une pelle, et G, un gros homme
assis dans un fauteuil; I danse sur la pointe de ses pieds, avec sa petite tête qui
se détache à chaque bond, pendant que J se balance; mais K est cassé comme
un vieillard, R marche à grandes enjambées comme un soldat, et Y est debout,
les bras en l’air et crie: au secours! L est un arbre au bord de la rivière, M est
une montagne; N est pour les noms, et les gens saluent de la main, P dort sur
une patte et Q est assis sur sa queue; S, c’est toujours un serpent, Z toujours un
éclair; T est beau, c’est comme le mât d’un bateau, U est comme un vase. V, W
ce sont des oiseaux, des vols d’oiseaux; X est une croix pour se souvenir.
J.M.G. Le Clézio, Mondo et autres histoires
The Renaissance was merely one piece of a much larger puzzle, which
meant I was going to write a different sort of book.
I have indeed become convinced that from their inception alphabetic
letters have provided an optic for the West’s view of the world. That
view has varied with the ages, and the metamorphoses are fascinating.
But underlying it all is the fact that, beginning with the Greeks, the
alphabet has been instrumental in defining a conceptual order for peo-
ple brought up under the dominion, as it were, of the alphabet. Many
scholars have speculated about how the invention of writing changed
human consciousness, and I did not doubt that this was the case.
But what I was curious to learn was how some twenty-odd characters
had provided a unique window on the world. The changes wrought by
the invention of writing and those brought about by the adoption of the
alphabet were not the same.
There was a moment that brought this home to me most powerfully,
and it was the moment when I knew I would write this book. I was
giving a seminar on the alphabetic letter at the University of Iceland in
Reykjavík. I had projected before a room full of doctoral students the
photograph reproduced in this book as fig. 1. This was by way of intro-
duction to the topic of the letter that we were going to explore for the
next several hours. I remarked that we all knew that this was a photo of
a few children scampering up some sort of waterwheel. But, I said, we
all saw it instantly in a second way. In fact, I claimed, we could not help
but also see the image as one of children climbing up a large capital
“D,” despite the fact that we knew that the intention of those who built
the waterwheel had surely not been to construct a letter of the alphabet.
I looked around for confirmation from the students of what I had
said, and they were all nodding in agreement. The “D” sprang out for
them, just as it probably does for most readers of this book.
But at that point a hand went up in the room.
The sole Asian student in the group – a Japanese woman – wished
to make a comment. When I called on her, she informed us that until I
actually stated that the waterwheel was in the shape of a capital “D,”
she had not seen this at all. In fact, she had initially wondered what the
image had to do with the topic we were going to discuss. Even when I
first mentioned that there was a second way of seeing the image, it did
not occur to her that I meant that it formed a letter of the alphabet.
I decided at that moment that I would write this book. The Japanese
student’s vision of the image, and of the world, was, I realized, pro-
foundly different from that of the students who had grown up with
xii Preface
alphabetic letters all around them since birth. I saw in her response the
truth of what has become the thesis of this book – that how Westerners
see their world is, and has for millennia been, conditioned by the expe-
rience of the alphabet. As soon as the “D” was pointed out to her, she
could “see” it. But it did not leap out at her the way it did for students
raised all their lives in the West.
But then the world divides largely into two writing systems: ones
based on Chinese characters and ones that are alphabetic. The written
languages we use in our world today have adopted grosso modo one of
these two systems; there is no third system in use. The Japanese student
came from a culture in which writing was done with characters; she
therefore came from the “other side” of writing.1
This book intends, then, to shed some light on the fundamental role
played by alphabetic letters in how Western culture has perceived
the world. Quite obviously, any one book cannot provide the definitive
word on a topic so vast. The goals of this volume therefore are simply
to provide an introduction and to begin a dialogue that others may take
up. For each chapter of this book, specialists with far more erudition
will be able to offer more penetrating analyses. The following pages
will both benefit and suffer from the fact that they have been written
by a generalist for an audience that may include both specialists and
non-specialists. My hope is that what I set forth in these pages will be
corrected and improved by friends, colleagues, and strangers.
I am indebted to many individuals and institutions for their help and
support as I have made my way through the material for this project. In
particular, I have benefitted from the helpful staffs at the Bibliothèque
Nationale (Paris), the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (Vienna), the
Pierpont Morgan Library (New York), the Newberry Library (Chicago),
the British Library (London), the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüt-
tel (Germany), the Kunst Historisches Museum (Vienna), the Beinecke
Library (Yale University), and the Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen
(Germany). I also wish to thank the Social Science and Humanities
Research Council for their generous grant as well as the University of
Western Ontario for an ADF grant and for a Rosslyn Kelly Swanson
Humanities Fund aid-to-publication grant. I have benefitted as well
from the hard work of the editors at the University of Toronto Press,
and in particular of my copy editor Miriam Skey. I have been privi-
leged to teach some of this material to bright and engaged students
in the Comparative Literature and Theory and Criticism centres at my
university, which has provided me with many provocative discussions
Preface xiii
INDIA: A. D. 1897.
Rejection of American proposals for a
reopening of mints to silver.
INDIA: A. D. 1897-1898.
Frontier wars.
From the early summer of 1897 until beyond the close of the
year, the British were once more seriously in conflict with
the warlike tribes of the Afghan frontier. The risings of the
latter were begun in the Tochi Valley, on the 10th of June,
when a sudden, treacherous attack was made by Waziri tribesmen
on the escort of Mr. Gee, the political agent, at the village
of Maizar. A number of officers and men were killed and
wounded, and the whole party would have been destroyed if
timely reinforcements had not reached them. Over 7,000 troops
were subsequently employed in the suppression and punishment
of this revolt. The next outbreak, in the Swat Valley, was
more extensive. It was ascribed to the preaching of a
fanatical Mohammedan priest, known as "the mud mullah," who
labored to excite a religious war, and was opened, July 26, by
a night attack on the British positions at Malakand and
Chakdarra. The latter outpost, guarding the bridge over the
Swat river, on the road to Chitral, was held by a small
garrison of less than 300 men, who were beleaguered for a
considerable time before relief came. According to an official
return of "wars and military operations on or beyond the
borders of British India in which the Government of India has
been engaged," made to Parliament on the 30th of January,
1900, there were 11,826 troops employed in the operations
immediately consequent on this rising, with the result that
"the insurgents were defeated and the fanatical gatherings
were dispersed; large fines were taken in money and arms." But
other neighboring tribes either gave help to the Swats or were
moved to follow their example, and required to be subdued,
their countries traversed by punitive expeditions and "fines
of money and arms" collected. Before the year closed, these
tasks employed 6,800 men in the Mohmand country, 3,200 in the
Utman Khel country, 7,300 in the Buner country, 14,231 in the
Kurram Valley; and then came the most serious business of all.
The Afridis, who had been subsidized by the government of
India for some years, as guardians of the important Khyber
Pass, were suddenly in arms against their paymasters, in
August, destroying the Khyber posts. This serious hostility
called nearly 44,000 British-Indian troops into the field,
under General Sir William Lockhart, whose successful campaign
was not finished until the following spring. The most serious
engagement of the war with the Afridis was fought at the
village of Dargai, October 18. The final results of the
campaign are thus summarized in the return mentioned above:
"British troops traversed the country of the tribes,
inflicting severe loss on the tribesmen, who were ultimately
reduced to submission: they paid large fines in money and
arms, and friendly relations have since been restored."
Great Britain,
House of Commons Reports and Papers, 1900, 13.
INDIA: A. D. 1898.
Discovery of the birthplace and the tomb of Gautama Buddha.
INDIA: A. D. 1899-1900.
Famine again.
{262}
INDIA: A. D. 1901.
Census of the Empire.
Decrease of population in several of the Native States.
Bombay, 176,000;
Bombay Native States, 17,000;
Baroda, 15,000;
Haidarabad, 2,000;
Madras, 3,000;
Central India States, 1,000.
Total, 214,000.
United States,
Message and Documents
(Abridgment, 1896-1897).
{264}
"But the work does not stop with the rising generation of the
race; it embraces also the adult Indian. … Soon after the
beginning of appropriations for Indian schools, Congress, in
what is called the Severalty Act, provided for every Indian
capable of appreciating its value, and who chose to take it, a
homestead of one hundred and sixty acres to heads of families,
and a smaller number to other members, inalienable and
untaxable for twenty-five years, to be selected by him on the
reservation of his tribe. If he prefer to abandon his tribe
and go elsewhere, he may take his allotment anywhere on the
public domain, free of charge. No English baron has a safer
title to his manor than has each Indian to his homestead. He
cannot part with it for twenty-five years without the consent
of Congress, nor can the United States, without his consent,
be released from a covenant to defend his possession for the
same period. This allotment carries with it also all the
rights, privileges, and immunities of an American citizen;
opens to these Indians, as to all other citizens, the doors of
all the courts; and extends to them the protection of all the
laws, national and state, which affect any other citizen. Any
Indian, if he prefers not to be a farmer, incumbered with one
of these homesteads, may become a citizen of the United
States, and reside and prosecute any calling in any part of
the United States, as securely under this law as anyone else,
by taking up his residence separate and apart from his tribe,
and adopting the habits of civilized life. Thus every door of
opportunity is thrown wide open to every adult Indian, as well
as to those of the next generation.
{266}
{267}