Universal authorship arrives long before universal literacy did

Evidence

Just as printing made everyone a potential reader, today digitalization is turning everyone into a potential author. But how long did it take until everyone was able to read? — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 34

Categorization

• QUESTION: The rhetorical question implies the emancipatory promise of universal authorship is premature — worth chasing how long literacy actually took.
• CANDY: Punchy, tweetable one-two for media-history conversations.
• XREF: connects to: Medieval authors could innovate while citing only established authorities — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 161; Authorial regimes of truth vary across cultures and eras — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 87; Modern political authority mirrors the unproblematic, mechanical presence of an author in written texts. — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 482

Related

• Authorial regimes of truth vary across cultures and eras (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Authorial regimes of truth vary across cultures and eras #expands (0.80) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 87
• Medieval authors could innovate while citing only established authorities #corroborates (0.75) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 161
• Modern political authority mirrors the unproblematic, mechanical presence of an author in written texts. #expands (0.72) — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 482