From the Publisher
"Ferrara says she wrote the book the way she talks to friends over dinner, and that’s exactly how it reads. Instead of telling a chronological history of writing, she moves freely from script to script, island to island . . . She is constantly by our side, prodding us with questions, offering speculations, reporting on exciting discoveries . . . . her book doubles as a manifesto for collaborative research." —Martin Puchner, The New York Times Book Review
"In Silvia Ferrara’s conception of it, writing is a fragile object, nurtured over many phases of human development . . . The Greatest Invention is a celebration not of achievements, but of moments of illumination and 'the most important thing in the world: our desire to be understood.'” —Lydia Wilson, The Times Literary Supplement
"If one has any doubts that the ancient past deserves our attention as much as the future Ferrara also energetically imagines, this book should dispel them. Encountered at the right time, this book could ignite a passion, even change a life." —Booklist (Starred Review)
"Ferrara’s survey is intricate and detailed, bolstered by photos and drawings of the various writing forms . . . The result is an intellectual feast." —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"Part reconnaissance, part time machine, part ode to our complex species, Ferrara's enchanting book unearths not only our writing systems but our humanity itself." —Amanda Montell, author of Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism and Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language
"From Crete to Easter Island, everywhere in between, and back again, Ferrara illuminates the sheer magic that the invention of writing actually was, while also sharing the pure joy of being a scientist. Plus, the translation is exquisite." —John McWhorter, author of Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever and Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America
"Deftly translated by Portnowitz, Ferrara’s book is more than a cook’s tour of the history, present, and future of writing . . . Ferrara capably conveys the sensory magic of writing: sound made visible and tangible." —Kirkus Reviews
New York Times Book Review
“Instead of telling a chronological history of writing…her book doubles as a manifesto for collaborative research.”
Booklist (starred review)
“If one has any doubts that the ancient past deserves our attention as much as the future Ferrara also energetically imagines, this book should dispel them. Encountered at the right time, this book could ignite a passion, even change a life.”
Kirkus Reviews
2021-10-26
A scholar of archaeology and linguistics leads us on “an uncharted journey, one filled with past flashes of brilliance, present-day scientific research, and the faint, fleeting echo of writing’s future.”
Deftly translated by Portnowitz, Ferrara’s book is more than a cook’s tour of the history, present, and future of writing. It’s so dense and detailed it could also serve as an academic text. “Writing is an entire world to be discovered, but it is also a filter through which to observe…ourworld: language, art, biology, geometry, psychology, intuition, logic,” writes Ferrara, a professor in the department of classical philology and Italian studies at the University of Bologna. She argues that the invention of writing as a complete and structured system derived from a series of gradual, cumulative, coordinated actions (and luck)—a cultural product, not an innate skill. Ferrara explores the creation of scripts (some yet to be deciphered) in China, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Crete, Easter Island, Cyprus, and Mesoamerica, beginning with their origins as images, icons, and logograms. She reveals the enduring power of the alphabet and how learning to write and read are physically mind-altering, and she investigates whywriting, a useful technology, if not a necessity, came about. The author offers fascinating historical accounts, observations (especially on today’s retro embrace of iconography), and deductions (at heart, the book is a detective story). She is thorough, perhaps to a fault. General readers may find the text too heavy on technical analysis. By contrast, Ferrara occasionally takes off on flights of giddy romanticism, though the scientist usually regains control. Her expertise and enthusiasm compensate for some of the pop-culture diversions, unbridled conjectures, and a few debatable assertions—e.g., “Collaboration is at the root of every modicum of progress ever gained”; “Art is not something that can be deciphered. It simply is.” Nonetheless, the author knows when to eschew overly definitive statements when it comes to the intersections of writing and language.
Ferrara capably conveys the sensory magic of writing: sound made visible and tangible.
