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06826_Field_TCUM T391.txt
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1996-04-10
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915b
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16 lines
Any student of the social history of the printed book is
likely to be puzzled by the lack of understanding of the psychic
and social effects of printing. In five centuries explicit comment
and awareness of the effects of print on human sensibility are
very scarce. But the same observation can be made about all
the extensions of man, whether it be clothing or the computer.
An extension appears to be an amplification of an organ, a
sense or a function, that inspires the central nervous system to
a self-protective gesture of numbing of the extended area, at
least so far as direct inspection and awareness are concerned.
Indirect comment on the effects of the printed book is available
in abundance in the work of Rabelais, Cervantes, Montaigne,
Swift, Pope, and Joyce. They used typography to create new art
forms.
Psychically the printed book, an extension of the visual