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It’s even more stark the further back you go. When the printing press was invented, it didn’t usher in a new era of creativity but instead the first few centuri
by throwup238 2y ago
It’s even more stark the further back you go. When the printing press was invented, it didn’t usher in a new era of creativity but instead the first few centuries resembled modern Hollywood: shameless sequels and reboots. By far the most popular books were translations of Greek classics and rote derivatives of the Arthurian legends. It wasn’t until the first iterations of copyright and a few other cultural shifts that a “professional” writer class was born and started to expand on the creativity of our stories. Until then publishing wasn’t profitable enough to support a real creative process, so they cribbed as much from existing canon as they could to make ends meet. See how long it took science fiction to properly develop into a literary form, for example.
- llm_trw 2y agoThat's the third major use of the printing press. The first was for catholic indulgences. The second was for religious propaganda during the European wars of religion.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- KineticLensman 2y ago> When the printing press was invented, it didn’t usher in a new era of creativity but instead the first few centuries resembled modern Hollywood It ushered in massive creativity! The early printshops were innovation hot-beds and quickly developed textual things that had never existed at scale before, like dictionaries, newspapers, political cartoons, encyclopaedia, technical drawings / manuals lacking copy errors, local maps, etc.
- andrewflnr 2y ago> how long it took science fiction to properly develop into a literary form How long do you think that took? There's a wide range of possible dates for each endpoint, but I don't think it reaches a century.