Memetic Horizon

The advent of writing was a sea change in human development.  On a civilization level it is academic.  This profound change also effected our brains.  The human brain chemistry and composition has been altered by the way we use our brains now that we inundate ourselves with symbols.  The alphabet being the culmination in this as no longer a particular symbol being a specific meaning.  Instead it represents a piece in the language matrix, together communicating thoughts as varied as "Much A Do About Nothing" to "Mein Kampf", from "Naked Lunch" to "Critique of Pure Reason". 

These letters are individual memes.  Perfect examples of memes that are successful in reproduction, far reaching in their effect and have been added together to form memecomplexes many times.  The words themselves small memecomplexes, then added together and given certain contexts have developed rich meaning in the collective subconcous. 

Jesus.  A name, but through thousands of years and millions of people, has survived with potence.  The thoughts and feelings behind the name Jesus were purposefully cultivated in the human community.  Other words like "nigger" or "NAZI" have accumulated a history that was not actively sought, though nonethleless exists. 

We don't read "Jesus" or "nigger" or "NAZI".  We read "The Gospel of Matthew" and "Mein Kampf".  We read books and blogs, not specific words.  Reading is a meme, we don't mean that we are visually observing symbols and translating them.  We mean that were observing many symbols in series and interrpreting a meaning collectively.  We don't read one word and stop.  Words are strung together, meanings lay a groundwork, make suppositions, argue and defend then conclude.  If words and phrases are memecomplexes then a work of literature is a memenetwork, a structure of interrelated memecomplexes.