Assumption Quote by Marshall McLuhan
“Throughout Finnegans Wake Joyce specifies the Tower of Babel as the tower of Sleep, that is, the tower of the witless assumption, or what Bacon calls the reign of the Idols.”
About This Quote
Source Book: Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, 1939
Joyce reinterprets the biblical Tower of Babel as a metaphor for the chaotic, unconscious mind, likening it to a tower of sleep and false assumptions that blind us to deeper truth.
In simple terms: The Tower of Babel symbolizes misguided assumptions that obscure reality.
Key Takeaway
Question assumptions that hinder insight.
Themes
philosophy
media theory
mythology
Mood
reflective
critical
Type
analytical
interpretive
When to use this quote
- literary analysis
- psychology
- cultural critique
Key Concepts
Babel
sleep
Idols
witless assumption
Questions to Reflect On
- How do our unconscious beliefs shape perception?
- Can we dismantle the “tower of sleep” in modern media?
A Different Perspective
The metaphor may overgeneralize complex cognitive processes.
![“What [Franz] Kafka says about the Tower of Babel: In the beginning there were actually many languages, and then as a punishment God gave the world a single language. And then they stopped understanding each other.” quote by Elie Wiesel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/9cc/elie-wiesel-341_babel_what-franz-kafka-says-about-the-tower-of_542076.jpg)
