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08897_Field_TCGG T662.txt
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1996-04-10
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835b
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15 lines
The printing press was at first mistaken for an engine of
immortality by everybody except Shakespeare.
* The physical factors as restructuring the modes and
areas of expression have so far occupied us only with regard to
the sudden emergence of individual voices and the seizing of
the vernacular as a unified and ready-made public address
system. Simultaneously there occurred the realization that the
printed word in the vernacular could confer an artificial eternity
of fame. In a delightful essay on Cardano (1501­1576) in
Abinger Harvest (p. 190) E. M. Forster points out that: “The
printing press, then only a century old, had been mistaken for
an engine of immortality, and men hastened to commit to it
deeds and passions for the benefit of future ages.” And Forster
(p. 193) quotes Cardano: