每周悦读｜ 文字有什么力量？

The Power of Writing

The Power of Writing

By Joel L. Swerdlow

No other invention- perhaps the wheel comes close- has had a longer and greater impact on humanity’s development than writing. Written words have   overthrown governments and changed the course of history. So powerful is writing that the beginnings of civilization  and history are most often defined as the moment cultures develop it. The transformation of language into the  written words has immortalized passion , genius, art, and science.

Much of writing’s power comes from its flexibility. Ever since the Sumerians began keeping records by carving signs on clay tablets 5,000 years ago, human have searched for the ideal tool to portray words. They have carved in stone and bone and written on leaves, bark, silk,  papyrus, parchment, paper, and electronic screens. This skill, once known only to a few professional scribes, grew into mass literacy: More than five billion people- about 85 percent of the world’s population- can now read and write.

Of the several hundred written languages in the world today, only Chinese still relies on a traditional writing system whereby individual characters represent individual words. These characters often mean one thing when used alone, but something else when combined. The Chinese character for sincerity, for example, shows the character for man alongside the one for word, literally a man standing by his word.

Since its beginning as a means for keeping records, writing has evolved into one of humanity’s most powerful forms of self-expression. People have used writing to counter loneliness and to establish a sense of self. In the fourth century B.C., Aristotle saw writing as a way to express “affections of the soul.” Recent studies have shown that writing about feelings can alleviate depression, boost the   immune system, and lower blood  pressure.