As the god of knowledge, writing, and the arbiter of godly disputes, Thoth represents much of the abstract in writing.
At first I resisted the idea that without literacy, one was incapable of thinking abstractly. Which I still think is not wholly correct, but what I’ve come to understand now is that without literacy, without an alphabet that allows for the communication of sound, any abstract representation of an idea relies on a previously agreed upon system of images that are used to illustrate a concept. While this may not be impossible without a uniform writing system, it might be more difficult to communicate – in writing – new ideas. In some cases it might be easier to simply explain what an individual is thinking, but the reality is that often, especially in cultures that rely on the oral transmission of information, ideas get lost. Like, who was the first guy to think: hey, let’s represent sounds instead of images in our writing? That guy is a genius, he gets called a genius in the film! But no one knows who he/she/they are, even though they changed the entire course of humanity.
So, while I find the great divide concept straight up annoying, I am beginning to see the point to their argument. Even if I don’t agree with it.
