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	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher

PALIMPSEST

Matthew Battles

A History of the Written World

A profound, eloquent meditation on the history of writing, from Mesopotamia to multimedia.

Why does writing exist? What does it mean to those who write? Born from the interplay of natural and cultural history, the seemingly magical act of writing has continually expanded our consciousness. Portrayed in mythology either as a gift from heroes or as a curse from the gods, it has been used as both an instrument of power and a channel of the divine; a means of social bonding and of individual self-definition. Now, as the revolution once wrought by the printed word gives way to the digital age, many fear that the art of writing—and the nuanced thinking nurtured by writing—are under threat. But writing itself, despite striving for permanence, is always in the midst of growth and transfiguration. Celebrating the impulse to record, to invent, to make one’s mark, Matthew Battles reenchants the written word for all those susceptible to the power and beauty of writing in all its forms. Matthew Battles is a fellow at the Berkman Center of Harvard University, where he is associate director of metaLAB, a research group exploring the bounds of networked culture. The author of Palimpsest and Library, he lives in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.

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Book Published 2015-07-01 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. - New York (USA)

Comments

[L]yrical…. [C]onsistently evocative…. In today's memoir-mad, self-published climate…“typing” has taken the place of “writing.” Battles’s work runs counter to this cultural moment, participating in and expanding the art that’s the focus of his history.” Michael Washburn

Anyone who can write a history of writing in fewer than 200 pages is either foolish or brilliant. Matthew Battles is brilliant. This is not an encyclopedic chronology but an extended essay that skips gracefully across the centuries, stopping wherever the most interesting stories lie.

The reader and writing fan absorbed by writing's miscellany will find much to love and sink into in Palimpsest…. An enthusiastic, detailed account of writing throughout history.” Julia Jenkins

This fascinating exploration of the evolution of writing shows how, despite radical technological changes, the practice maintains its atavistic mystery…. And the history of the written word, as this book makes clear, reveals the evolution of the human mind.” W. Ralph Eubanks

Incredibly ambitious…intriguing…thoroughly researched and thought provoking.

From traces in clay to photon traces on the screens that surround us today, seeing roots and bones in the shapes of letters, Matthew Battles explores the deep origins and hidden structures of our written world. Scholarly and poetic, Palimpsest is a beautiful and engaging read for anyone who loves to write.

An illuminating look at the origins and impact of writing…richly detailed…. Battles deftly excavates layers of human history from a wide range of sources…. A fascinating exploration stylishly and gracefully told.

The written word changed literally everything, allowing for history, the law, and civilization itself. But rarely is it appreciated for its own sake and its own beauty. Matthew Battles has written an essential text on the essence of writing. Whether it turns out to be an ode or an elegy, we have yet to see.

Korean: Science Books

This is book history as dizzying palimpsest. Traveling through centuries and across continents, Battles finds unexpected connections and echoes that resonate with our own day. Surely this is what life in Borges’s endless library must be.

To call this book a profound meditation on what it means to be human would be to tell the truth but leave out all the fun. At once elegant and mischievous, Palimpsest is a great intellectual adventure that travels around the world on its way from the emergence of cuneiform to the future of cyberspace. It will charm and provoke any reader who has ever put pen to paper or typed into a text box, whether to attempt literature or scrawl today’s to-do list.

[A] dazzling foray into the history of text.