#i once ate an infinitesimal fragment of a gutenberg bible
#it had fallen onto the library table and really what would you do

@anaisnein WUT

so my original first-pass career concept was to become an English professor, and medieval was one of my two preferred areas of potential specialization, and consequently I took this fantastic bibliography grad seminar that met at Houghton Library, and in an early class they brought out the Gutenberg, I suspect partly for bonding purposes so we could all stand around and ooh and ahh at it, but in an effort to raise the actual pedagogy coefficient they were actually handling it and turning pages and stuff, and a tiny little piece flaked off of one of the pages and came to rest on the table, and I locked eyes with it

consider: this little crumb of pure meaning was imminently about to be swept away into the undifferentiated dust. it was v v smol, and the next person to breathe or gesture in its general direction would have been the end of it

it seemed only respectful

I mean. It was the only reasonable course of action.