It Changed Everything

Quote of the day:
“In Mainz, Germany, on this day in 1455 began the mass printing of the Gutenberg Bible, the first manuscript in Europe to be printed by movable type. About 180 copies were produced, the Bible contained more than 1,280 pages, and on each page the text was laid out in two 42-line columns. Up until that time, manuscripts were usually copied by scribes, and a handwritten Bible could take one scribe more than a year to prepare. Sometimes woodblock printing was used, but it was also an expensive and time-consuming process. The movable type printing press featured individual blocks with a single character that could be rearranged endlessly. Passages of text would be covered in ink and used to make repeated impressions on paper. The printing press that Johann Gutenberg built was based on the design of presses for wine and paper. It's estimated that more books were produced in the 50 years after the movable type printing press was built than in the 1,000 years before it. Gutenberg's invention is credited with making the Renaissance possible: it allowed classical Greek and Latin texts to be distributed widely. It also made books affordable to lower classes.”
--The Writer’s Almanac

A strong candidate for biggest understatement of all time is that the printing press changed everything.

Until then, writing and reading was mostly for ceremonial recording, recollecting and passing along tradition. These tasks were done by learned clerics. Essentially, almost no one on earth could read beyond a few symbols.

Before Gutenberg, we lived in stratified oral cultures in which information, knowledge and tradition were passed along in groups through speeches, recitations and storytelling.

With the printing press came the gradual shift to an individualistic culture, as ordinary people learned to read and began to learn about the world through internal one-on-one communication with authors and writers.

Simultaneously with the settlement of Jamestown came the King James bible in 1611. As the immigrant population in America grew over the next 200+ years, this book was a fixture in almost every American home.

Its ubiquity made it a sort of early American equivalent to TV.

Speaking of which, the next tectonic communications/culture shift occurred in the 20th century with the advent of broadcast radio and TV. Broadcast radio initially resembled pre-Gutenberg oral culture, except that listening was done primarily individually and within families. Also, there was no interaction.

TV added passivity to individualism as we began to fixate on flickering images transmitted to our homes. Our eyes and ears became fully engaged, if not always our minds.

Then, of course, in the 1990s there’s the spread of the internet....

The Writers' Strike is Important

Quote of the day:
"I was inspired by the marvelous example of Giacometti, the great sculptor. He always said that his dream was to do a bust so small that it could enter a matchbook, but so heavy that no one could lift it. That's what a good book should be."
--Elie Wiesel, talking about his memoir “Night.”

The Hollywood writers’ strike has gone on for a month, and the world has not stopped. Yet. If the production of “Friday Night Lights” is held up, I am going to be annoyed.

With the level of money so many of these writers make, it’s hard to feel much sympathy. But the strike rests on an important principle, which is that creative control should be in the hands of those with creative talent, not in the hands of those with no creative talent.

The writer and producer Marshall Herskovitz made this point very well in a Los Angeles Times column on November 8th. He says the current problem started when the Federal Communications Commission abolished the financial interest and syndication rules.

These were classic anti-trust regulations that prohibited networks from owning the programs they broadcast. Under these regulations, dozens of independent production companies thrived.

Since the repeal of the regulations, all of these companies have been forced out of business. The four networks essentially have a stranglehold on all production.

Just as in so many other industries, production (and writing) are now consolidated. Most everything we see and hear is coming from four huge and growing companies.

And there is much, much more meddling in the creative side by people who simply don’t know what they’re doing--that’s why they’re managers, accountants or lawyers instead of writers, actors, producers or directors.

This is not a black or white situation. Some managers and executives came up through the creative ranks.

But just like in most businesses, the people in charge came most often from sales. And the operations people came from CPA or business-school backgrounds.

Since when do these people know how to put together a TV show or movie? But now many of them have their red pencils out, marking up scripts.

A Treat, Every Saturday Night

Quote of the day:
“My mother had morning sickness after I was born.”
--Rodney Dangerfield

There was a classic moment on “A Prairie Home Companion” this week. Martin Sheen (President Bartlett) made his singing debut. He sang an old hymn, and it was heartfelt and real and wonderful.

Do yourself a favor and hear it here. It’s in the second hour.

I love “A Prairie Home Companion.” I’ve sort of grown into it over the years.

When the program was first offered nationally it was so quirky that many stations did not carry it initially. At KPBS we decided to wait and see how the program did.

Sure enough, it quickly began to catch on and we added it to the schedule in 1980. For years it was our most-successful weekend program.

The program’s uniqueness springs from the extraordinary personality of Garrison Keillor. He has a special gift for gentle storytelling that is both funny and very resonant with contemporary life.

Attempts have been made to expand the show, which originates from St. Paul, Minnesota. It was renamed and moved to New York because of the misguided belief that this would broaden its appeal. It didn’t work.

A TV version of the show was produced for a while. It didn’t work.

Robert Altman made a movie based on the show. It was pleasant enough, but no match for the radio program.

Over the years Keillor has evolved into a sort of non-religious American preacher of the air. Every week he addresses contemporary events and issues in a non-challenging and entertaining way.

And he always manages to get across what it means to be alive at this time and in this place.