First off, I would like to comment on the title of the first chapter of Gleick's book: Drums that Talk. The title immediately held my interest and made me want to read, which is always something really important in a book, newspaper, report. It's a hook and it keeps you captivated.
But more importantly, I want to focus on page 16 of the section we read. Gleick talks about using fire signals, the fastest way of sending a message back in the day. Now, none of you know this yet, but Lord of the Rings is my heart and soul. And as soon as I read about bonfires being used to spread the messages, I automatically thought of the scene where Pippin (Peregrin Took) lights the signal fire and then an entire string of fires is lit across the mountains and plains. It amazes me how interconnected things are in the world, how a scene from Lord of the Rings can be connected to this book, and to the Trojan War.
It's also interesting to me that these signal fires had one meaning: something is going on. Basically, people had to play a guessing game as to what was happening until someone actually showed up, which was probably a huge hassle because they really didn't know whether to prepare for the arrival of someone important or to prepare for a battle. I guess it kept them on their toes. Of course, Gleick later says that they tied mirrors and flags to them, probably signifying what event was occurring, so that they could prepare for the right occasion.
It's so cool to think about how far we have come, especially now that we even refer to the postal service as "snail mail." It makes me wonder if people think about fire signals or sending mail by horse. As of this moment, a text is sent within seconds, and we'll only keep getting faster about it.
I thought that part was interesting as well because we have so much technology today and can get a message sent in a matter of a second. If you think about all of those events that happened in the past today they wouldn't be using fire signals to get their information to someone. It would be all over social media. In my mind it's like the fire signals were like the first text messages but they didn't know what the problem was.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE LORD OF THE RINGS! I thought of it as soon as I read it in the book too! It's crazy to think that so much time, preparation, and detail went into burning wood. Before I read this book, I didn't know that fire was used a messaging system in the Trojan War. It's hard to believe that even "primitive" forms of communication spanned for hundreds of miles, and were amazingly intricate. Particularly with the drums, so much learning went into conveying a single sentence, many people gave up. If I were musically talented at all, I would love to try it :)
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