The Language of the Press

"What gunpowder did for war, the printing press has done for the mind."

The Walk of Ideas designed by

Scholtz & Friends to celebrate

the invention of modern printing.

Wendell Phillips lived during the 1800's so he saw the outcomes of this Renaissance technology. The ability to communicate had always been essential to the influential people of any time period. Even more important, however, was the ability to immortalize their words. Painstaking methods, such as carving into solid rock, were employed so that a ruler could "live on" beyond his death. How else would we know of the great deeds they performed? When Gutenberg developed his printing press, suddenly it was easy to not only immortalize, but also spread one's ideas. Without it, the extent of a great mind's sprezzatura in speech and writing would have been lost or limited, as mentioned by Kekoa in our salon discussion.

On the other hand, maybe some ideas should have been lost. Violent revolutions and reformations grew out of humanistic ideas that spread quickly with the ability to mass produce writings. Dictators and despots controlled the masses with propaganda. Many lives were lost and countries were left in shambles, such as France after its revolution.

Bust of Mark Antony

Do we blame the invention? A person's ability to manipulate sprezzatura for good or bad may be limited by the absence of accessibility provided by the printing press, but the press itself depends on a great orator to create the ideas. Or can it create a great orator? Mark Antony moved people against Brutus with his speech without printing, but the version of the story we know comes from one of Shakespeare's plays that was printed. Did humanism begin with Petrarch's ascent up Mount Ventoux in 1336, or did it not truly take root until the high Renaissance after the press's birth in 1450?

When I was in junior high, I was surprised to learn about a new form of the English language that included acronyms like lol and ttyl. I also noticed that those who spoke in that way were the same people that owned cell phones. Most would attribute this sudden change in communication style to the fact that people had developed shortened words and letter combinations to text each other faster and express feelings that normally are understood by voice inflection or facial expressions. I didn't like the change, but those who used it typically commanded attention. Their sprezzatura seemed to come from an ability to command the language as influenced by modern technology, possibly in the same way influential people, such as Luther and other reformers, took advantage of the printing press.

The changing technology continually influences how we express ourselves and influence those around us. We want our ideas to spread and live after and beyond just us. Seeking to achieve this goal in turn influences the technology of communication. We now text with full keyboard touchscreens and post ideas and experiences in "public" online areas. The changes in how we communicate and what we communicate change with the medium of communication. The outcomes may vary as they have in the past from revolutions and dictators to improved lifestyle and great minds.