The New Dark Ages: The Death of Reading and the Dawn of the Post-Literate Society

James Marriott

A provocative argument about how an increase in literacy jumpstarted modern civilization and how its decline threatens democracy and the future of humanityThe beginning of the modern era saw the widespread adoption of new printing technologies that allowed the written word to spread far and wide. It's not by chance this period also saw the rise of revolutions and the decline of the aristocratic order. For the first time, a critical mass of people could share and debate ideas about individual rights, the purpose of government, and scientific truth. With rising literacy came the world we recognize today.Now, around the world, the number of people who read is in free fall. Literacy is declining or stagnating in most developed countries. University students are unable to read the books assigned in their classes. The golden chain of knowledge linking reader to reader through the centuries is breaking for the first time since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire ushered in the Dark Ages. In The Dawn of the Post-Literate Society, London Times columnist James Marriott argues that this is the most important cultural shift of our time. The age of print is giving way to the age of the screen. The world we knew is passing away and nothing will ever be the same again.Marriott gives an impassioned attack on the trivial culture of the screen and a defense of the written word and long-form argument. Drawing on history, media theory, and sociology, The Dawn of the Post-Literate Society argues that reading and writing are essential for innovation, creativity, and complex thought. Above all, the culture of print is critical to the functioning of modern democracies which require their citizens to grapple with ideas at length and in depth. As print dies we risk returning to the chaos, tribalism, and rage of the world before widespread literacy.

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The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 1

Mokumokuren

It has Hikaru’s face. It has Hikaru’s voice. It even has Hikaru’s memories. But whatever came down from the mountains six months ago isn’t Yoshiki’s best friend. Whatever it is, it’s dangerous. Carrying on at school and hanging out as if nothing has changed―as if Hikaru isn’t gone―would be crazy...but when it looks so very like Hikaru...and acts so very like Hikaru...

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Martyr!

Kaveh Akbar

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others—in which a newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a search that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of Tehran in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the Angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed. Electrifying, funny, wholly original, and profound, Martyr! heralds the arrival of a blazing and essential new voice in contemporary fiction.

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Slaves of the Mastery (Wind on Fire, #2)

William Nicholson

Five years have passed. The city of Aramanth has become kinder--weaker. When the ruthless soldiers of the Mastery strike, the city is burned, and the Manth people are taken into slavery. Kestrel Hath is left behind, separated from her beloved brother Bowman, and vowing revenge. Now Kestrel must find Bowman again, and Bowman must learn the secrets of the Singer people. Only then will they break the power of the Mastery. Cover illustration by David Scutt

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