A Zippy on art and writing:
(Earlier Zippy on cave painting here.)
The cave paintings tell a story — every picture tells a story, as they say — but not in words. As Griffy notes, the extraordinary cave paintings came long before there was written language. And even then, the earliest writing seems to have been used for pedestrian purposes (like marking property and keeping inventories); it was some time before we got to narratives, love letters, and all the good stuff. I wonder when jokes came into it.
So: fascinating art, but not yet stories in words. And no punch lines.
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