Daniel Levitin: From Sales Receipts

Posted by admin on Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Meaning of Daniel Levitin Money Quote: saying writing began as a business transaction record – sales receipts and not art or literature. Daniel Levitin said:
 

“The first forms of writing emerged not for art, literature, or love, not for spiritual or liturgical purposes, but for business — all literature could be said to originate from sales receipts (sorry)” — Daniel Levitin

 

Daniel Levitin is suggesting that some of the earliest forms of writing developed for practical business purposes like recording sales transactions or receipts, rather than for artistic, spiritual or personal reasons.

His point seems to be that the origins of writing can be traced back to documenting commercial exchanges, and that even great works of literature have their roots in such functional written records.

The “sorry” he includes may be meant tongue-in-cheek, to gently acknowledge how unromantic an idea it is that literature descended from something as mundane as receipts.