Ewan ClaytonBesprekingen
Auteur van The Golden Thread: A History of Writing
10 Werken 171 Leden 4 Besprekingen
Besprekingen
![](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/1619022427.01._SX100_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
The Golden Thread: The Story of Writing door Ewan Clayton
Gemarkeerd
ElentarriLT | 3 andere besprekingen | Mar 24, 2020 | An accessible, leisurely grand tour through the history of writing.
Gemarkeerd
Sullywriter | 3 andere besprekingen | May 22, 2015 | I think Clayton just tried too hard. He has a point which is probably quite profound. It has to do with the place of writing in human existence, at the individual and social level and really as a core dimension of the play between individual and society that gives human existence its deep character.
How to get such a profound point across? Ha, maybe Clayton was going a bit down the track that Charles Darwin set for himself. To establish a fundamental truth requires the marshaling of a body of evidence that spans the range of implications of that truth. Darwin got frightened into publishing before he was really ready, by Wallace beating him to the finish line. I wonder if Clayton got pushed into publishing somehow. He covers a vast range of history and cultural phenomena, but never really digs into any aspect or phase with the intensity that could really pull the reader into intimate grappling at the level he is attempting to plumb.
Clayton covers a vast range of history, from ancient Egypt to the internet. He skims across dozens of writing systems, touching on details of shapes... but how, anyway, does one bracket a serif? We are told about ways to cut nibs and the chemical makeup of lithographic resist and how the nozzles on cans of spray paint can be interchanged... but these points are just touched and never really given thorough analysis.
Often one can say more by saying less, and I think that approach might have worked better here. It is wonderful that Clayton had a career that encompassed such a wide range, but I think this book would have communicated more effectively had it been less a reflection of his career and more a reflection of some particular event and how the full depth of human experience is folded into that event. A tighter focus would have made the book richer.
But there really is a grand heap of fun here. I ordered a book by David Jones and a biography of him, that's the path I chose to follow from here. The notes and references are very rich - a great mine of starting points! As an introductory survey to writing systems, this is really quite a good book! It just wanders a bit too much to give it enough coherence to make a solid point, to hit hard, to be great. But hey, a great book is no easy thing to write!
How to get such a profound point across? Ha, maybe Clayton was going a bit down the track that Charles Darwin set for himself. To establish a fundamental truth requires the marshaling of a body of evidence that spans the range of implications of that truth. Darwin got frightened into publishing before he was really ready, by Wallace beating him to the finish line. I wonder if Clayton got pushed into publishing somehow. He covers a vast range of history and cultural phenomena, but never really digs into any aspect or phase with the intensity that could really pull the reader into intimate grappling at the level he is attempting to plumb.
Clayton covers a vast range of history, from ancient Egypt to the internet. He skims across dozens of writing systems, touching on details of shapes... but how, anyway, does one bracket a serif? We are told about ways to cut nibs and the chemical makeup of lithographic resist and how the nozzles on cans of spray paint can be interchanged... but these points are just touched and never really given thorough analysis.
Often one can say more by saying less, and I think that approach might have worked better here. It is wonderful that Clayton had a career that encompassed such a wide range, but I think this book would have communicated more effectively had it been less a reflection of his career and more a reflection of some particular event and how the full depth of human experience is folded into that event. A tighter focus would have made the book richer.
But there really is a grand heap of fun here. I ordered a book by David Jones and a biography of him, that's the path I chose to follow from here. The notes and references are very rich - a great mine of starting points! As an introductory survey to writing systems, this is really quite a good book! It just wanders a bit too much to give it enough coherence to make a solid point, to hit hard, to be great. But hey, a great book is no easy thing to write!
Gemarkeerd
kukulaj | 3 andere besprekingen | Jul 7, 2014 | Fascinating history of writing. Nice easy writing style and full of interesting information.½
Gemarkeerd
Mouldywarp | 3 andere besprekingen | Feb 19, 2014 | Onze site gebruikt cookies om diensten te leveren, prestaties te verbeteren, voor analyse en (indien je niet ingelogd bent) voor advertenties. Door LibraryThing te gebruiken erken je dat je onze Servicevoorwaarden en Privacybeleid gelezen en begrepen hebt. Je gebruik van de site en diensten is onderhevig aan dit beleid en deze voorwaarden.