Week 3 Discussion Questions

Preface – Chapter 3: The Printed Authorship of the Modern World

1. Why does Levinson propose that printing in Europe had more impact than China?

Gutenburg and earlier developers of the press in the West of course had no such ideographic barriers, working with an alphabet whose twenty-six different letter - in contrast to the Chinese 20,000 - were already interchangeable in their representation of a potentially infinite number of words, and thus could not have been better suited to the workings of the press interchangeable type. The Phoenician invention thus had one last unintended consequence, certainly among the biggest: It made the press possible as a vehicle for mass production of text. The wine press already in use n Europe had interchangeable parts; it was Gutenberg et al.'s genuis to see how this could apply to letters - to meld the grape press and the Chinese printing press into a press of mass media.

2. Martin Luther thought that people should read the bible themselves rather than rely upon the clergy. Would Luther’s “Ninety-five Theses” have had the same impact in 1517 if Gutenberg had not started printing bibles 50 years earlier? Explain.

Luther's "Ninety-five Theses" wouldn't have had the same impact on society because the "word" of the printed bible wouldn't have been so easy to come by because they weren't printed copies yet. So the society wouldn't have the luxury of reading the word for themselves versus hearing it from a pastor where the pastor could be possibly be preaching the "word" on how he understands it versus you reading the bible and getting your own understanding from it.

3. Describe how books were reproduced before the printing press and by whom. Describe how this changed after development of the printing press.

Books were reproduced by spoken word as a conveyor of its memes to the larger culture. This changed after the development of the printing press cause it provided descriptions in black and white that could be counted on, and banked upon.

4. Why does Levinson propose that the Norse exploration of the New World did not create more impact? Contrast this with how Columbus' reports of the New World fueled the “Age of Discovery”.

The Norse expeditions invited only a limited number of other Norse voyages. The Newfoundland foothold was never developed, and in a few hundred years even the Greenland settlements- on the eve, ironically, of Columbus disappeared. It was ahead of its medium. Medium they didn't have the printing press to make headlines to promote it at all it was mainly word of mouth and word of mouth didn't go that far at that time.

5. The distribution of books is not enough to spread knowledge. For the power of the book to be yielded there needs to be a literate public to access that knowledge. Discuss the role of literacy in building our modern world.

The power of reading and getting knowledge for yourself promotes advances in the world for each generation and the knowledge for our modern world. The role of literacy is greatly embraced and is fundamental of getting ahead in our society. If you don't have knowledge you lack power and therefore you lack intelligence.

6. A “meme” is an idea, behavior, style or usage that spreads from one person to another within a culture. For example, the fashion of platform shoes, the idea that the earth is the center of the galaxy, or “rickrolling”. How were cultural memes exchanged before printing? In what ways are they exchanged now?

Cultural memes were past down in the family from generation to generation to keep the future generation knowledgeable and up to date with cultural customs. They are exchanged the same ways now only now i addition with help of the social media.

Chapter 4: The Age of Photography and the Ageless Image

7. French film critic André Bazin stated that “Photography is free from the sin of subjectivity”. Explain what he meant by that statement. To what extent is this true?

If we subsitute "unreliability " for "subjectivity," we can easily see one high-profile component of the sin.

8. Levinson reminds us that each form of media is subject to inaccuracies; error can creep into our understanding because of the detachment from direct experience. Describe the ways in which photography can be perceived as an exact depiction of reality. Describe ways in which photography lies.

With a photograph you can see how exactly a scene is depict but it also has its downfalls whereas you don't know what caused the scene cause your not experiencing it for yourself. It is mearly a picture you can observe what you think is going on but you lack the knowledge of what is actually going on.

9. In 1839, French painter Paul Delaroche exclaimed, “From today on, painting is dead!” Consider painting at the time. To what extent was he right? Explain. What are some of the ways photography changed painting and art?

Photography change the efficency of quick you can see a scene versus painting it and it time it takes.