Brad wrote: > There is a book the title of which I forget which > even speculated that the coming of the printing press > in a rigid society could fail to change anything but > merely be absorbed to facilitate the society's > existing rigid lifeform. THe printing pressers > could be used to print catechisms and pledges of > allegiance (etc.) ...
And indeed these are almost exactly all that was printed in the first, say, 50 years of printing (in a *comparatively* rigid European society): catechisms, prayer books, and other religious material. > instead of sparking (as Elizabeth > Eisenstein argued): > + A permanent Renaissance > + A Reformation of religion, ETC. If one lists the consequences of printing (according to Eisenstein), it seems to me you get pretty much what Joseph Needham (following Marx) identified as the consequences of the emergence and growth of *capital* - protestant reformation, scientific revolution, & all that. The printing press is one among many *agents* of much deeper changes. Stephen Straker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Vancouver, B.C. [Outgoing mail scanned by Norton AntiVirus]
