For Want Of A Brie, The Book May Have Lost

September 7, 2021 7:20 AM

[SL TWITTER] "Cheese is one of the 5 things the Western book as we know it depends on. The other four are snails, Jesus, underwear and spectacles. If even one of these things was absent, the book [...] today would look completely different. I'll explain why." [Threadreader link here]
posted by EmpressCallipygos (8 comments total)

We just had this for lunch yesterday.
posted by oulipian at 7:26 AM on September 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Oh crap - self-flagging, sorry mods.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:27 AM on September 7, 2021

Kudos on the title, FWIW.
posted by signal at 7:51 AM on September 7, 2021

I'm inspired to have a ham and cheese sandwich, so thanks for that, too.
posted by box at 8:09 AM on September 7, 2021

Blessed are the cheese makers. Side note one of the 3 valleys that ancient Jerusalem straddles is the Tyropoeon Valley this translates to "Valley of the Cheese Makers"
posted by interogative mood at 8:10 AM on September 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

The idea that the alphabet depended on sea snails is drawing a long bow. As the thread points out, the invention of the alphabet is one of those things that just doesn't occur to most societies, but once our ancestors saw it in action, it was obviously an improvement. The Phoenician alphabet would likely have spread regardless, as trading partners picked up on it - the alphabet outlasted the Phoenicians by a significant margin.
posted by Merus at 8:16 AM on September 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Ah. Found my pedant. Thanx y'all.
posted by mule98J at 8:21 AM on September 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Right, but I think the point of the thread was more like "The Phoenicians spread THAT alphabet, which was much more suited to moveable-type-printing than another alphabet system would have been." They get into it in some later tweets in the thread.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:22 AM on September 7, 2021