No one illustrates better than [James] Joyce the manner in which the word becomes words, the Book becomes the library, man becomes language. While all of history and all of culture are resumed in Shem's excremental texts, in order to comprehend the smallest portion of this new Scripture the reader is tempted into the labyrinth of libraries where he invariably loses his way.[Vladimir] Tatlin specified that no room of the cube [of Monument to the Third International] was to be a museum or library. All must be kept kinetic, fluid, revolutionary.
The survival of pencils and [door] hinges (and even typewriters), long after the development of alternatives, argues that, in forecasting technological conquests and describing the march of technological complexity, we have a tendency to underestimate what Raymond Williams calls the "social-material complex" of which technologies are only a part. Like an exasperated gardener, we snip triumphantly at the exposed plant, forgetting how extensive established roots can be. Pencil and hinge survive technological cuts on the strength of their deep social resourcefulness. And for similar reasons, we may find that the simple hinged book will prove as enduring. The closed cover, turned page, broken spine, serial form, immutable text, revealing heft, distinctive formats, handy size, and so on offer their own deep-rooted and resilient combination of technology and social process and continue to provide unrivaled signifying matter.