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09030_Field_TCGG T795.txt
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1996-03-19
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16 lines
recourse to the world of dreams. The mechanical spirit of
movable types in precise lines, thus, could not have been given
a more faithful reflection than by Descartes. We have earlier
cited his new consumer idea of philosophy, exhorting his reader
to go through his work “in its entirety like a novel without
forcing the attention unduly upon it or stopping at difficulties.”
The notion of moving steadily along on single planes of
narrative awareness is totally alien to the nature of language
and of consciousness. But it is highly consistent with the
nature of the printed word. Going closely with this lineal
denudation of language is the associated impression of
mechanical repetition and recurrence which came to weigh ever
more heavily on the Renaissance mind:
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end;