Empire of the Word - The Origin of Reading

Empire of the Word
WORLD PREMIERE - TVO Canada
Wednesday, November 25 at 10:00 pm

Eight years in the making, Empire of the Word is a compelling look inside the act of reading and traces its impact on more than five thousand years of human history. Introduced and narrated by one of the world's great readers, Canadian writer Alberto Manguel, the series traces reading's origins; examines how we learn to read; exposes censors' attempts to prevent our reading; and finally, proposes what the future might hold for this most human of creative acts.

Empire of the Word Online is also an interactive Alternate Reality Game. It is fantasy, but the story it tells derives from histories of real, courageous people who have risked all to preserve and defend the freedom to think, write, and read freely.

Play Online: Lekha’s Journey – explore the past, present and future of the written word in this 8-part interactive mystery.

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Episode 1: The Magic of Reading - Wed. Nov. 25 @ 10:00PMHow did the alphabet we know today come to be? What was the world's first novel? How did the concept of being free to interpret one's own meaning from a text evolve? The opener uncovers the genesis of the written word, including primitive animal paintings on cave walls, the advent of portable writing materials like papyrus scrolls and Alexander the Great's dream of the first universal library.

Episode 2: Learning to Read - Wed. Dec. 2 @ 10:00PMIn a prosperous western nation such as Canada, we take the ability to read for granted, yet one in six Canadian adults can't read a newspaper headline. How does the human mind learn to read? And how can the ability to read allow us to transcend difficult life circumstances?

Episode 3: Forbidden Reading - Wed. Dec. 9 @ 10:00PMReaders and writers the world over have been punished and persecuted for expressing their ideas or by simply carrying the wrong book. Nazi book burnings, publisher Barney Rosset's legendary legal battles in the 1950s and 60s over the right to publish the uncensored works of Henry Miller and D.H. Lawrence in the U.S., authors in hiding ... we witness how the determination of writers and their readers is not without revolutionary consequences.

Episode 4: The Future of Reading - Wed. Dec. 16 @ 10:00PM
How will the technological revolution change the way we read? Will electronic texts like cellphone fiction replace the traditional book? What ethical issues are at play when it comes to who owns the digital archives of the world's printed heritage? We get perspectives from Canadian interactive novelist Kate Pullinger (Inanimate Alice) and Google engineering director Dan Landry, among others.