Money Wisdom #86

"The language of modern man is a spoken language imitating written language. Rousseau considers the difference between hieroglyphic writing, by which things are represented, and modern abstract alphabetic writing, by which sounds are represented. Alphabetic signs, in fact, encourage the reader to forget things; the representation must pass through sounds rather than directly to things. For Rousseau, the historical development of the alphabet corresponds to that of a monetary economy and to that of a police state."

Marc Shell The Economy of Literature (1978) p.123