Before (and after) Gutenberg

In the mailbox today...

Today is the 1154th anniversary of printing of the first known book. On May 11th (our calendar) in the year 868 The Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist scripture was printed on a 17-foot scroll using wood blocks having been commissioned by one Wang Jie. The information regarding its date and commissioning was included in its pages which survive today.

The Sutra was published some 586 years earlier than the first printing of what is now called The Gutenberg Bible. Historians place 1454 or 1455 as the date, which is recognized as a good approximation. It was about 256 pages long consisting of variable lines numbering about 42 per page. It was the first mass-production of a text in the Western world. “Gutenberg invented Henry Ford” is a quip attributed to Marshall McLuhan who also noted, with some prescience, that “World War III will be a guerilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.”

“When you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there.” Mother Teresa's reply to a reporter's question why she would not attend a planned anti-war rally. If that doesn't make sense to you, here's the thing: It's not about being against something, it's about being for something. January 6, 2021 wasn't a pro-peace rally.

If you are awake, everything you see and experience is constantly amazing.