The chosen Boorstin reading focused on the life and work of Johan Gutenburg
and his invention of the printing press. It discusses the colorful life that
Gutenburg lived, lawsuits he was involved in, and perceptions others held of
him and of his work. The most interesting section for me was the part about the
process Gutenburg went through in inventing the press and the specific
considerations he made to ensure that the letters were about the same width and
height and the different inks he used.
The printing press was the first
step in producing our literate society and had huge implications for the way we
communicate. Without the press, we wouldn’t have had the movable type, which
led to newspapers. A modern example of this technology is the computer or phone keyboard. It has individual keys just
like the press did and allows the written word to be mass-produced. One could
argue that Gutenburg’s invention is what allows me to be able to sit here typing
away on this blog. Anyone can be a writer: anyone can “publish” things to the Internet
for all to read on Google’s Blogger, even from my cell phone.
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