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06680_Field_TCUM T245.txt
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1996-04-10
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920b
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16 lines
magic formula for the female figure while the haptic hand
sweeps the air.
Baudelaire had the true intuition of number as a tactile
hand or nervous system for interrelating separate units, when
he said that “number is within the individual. Intoxication is a
number.” That explains why “the pleasure of being in a crowd is
a mysterious expression of delight in the multiplication of
number.” Number, that is to say, is not only auditory and
resonant, like the spoken word, but originates in the sense of
touch, of which it is an extension. The statistical aggregation
or crowding of numbers yields the current cave-drawings or
finger-paintings of the statisticians’ charts. In every sense, the
amassing of numbers statistically gives man a new influx of
primitive intuition and magically subconscious awareness,
whether of public taste or feeling: “You feel better satisfied