I've noticed reviews of a book on this subject recently. It was called
_Marginalia_, I think. Can't remember the author, but it should be easy
enough to trace on Amazon.
And, to take up Mairead's point, what an astonishing thing the Web, is. I
never cease to be amazed at how easy it is to trace information one might
have spent months searching for in libraries. I've taken to searching it for
the names of people I lost touch with twenty-odd years ago, and sure enough
I find most of them. So far I haven't got in touch with them, though. It
seems somehow an intrusion, as if it's actually a necessary process to lose
some of one's friendships over time. They've been transformed into memories,
and to revive them again deliberately (of course, such rediscoveries have
always happened by chance from time to time) would be a shock on both sides.
But there they all are, swimming about in cyberspace, ready to be fished
out. It's an uncanny feeling.
Best wishes
Matthew
-----Original Message-----
From: Tidemark Design <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 17 June 2001 03:38
Subject: Re: swallows
>Thanks to Mairead and Matthew for tracing the poems for me - it's
fascinating to trace another, unknown reader's inspiration through time -
pencilled notes in margins of old texts, dedications written by an unknown
hand, or as is the case with this small mystery, an ancient pressed flower
and a faded ink quotation, marking a place in a book of poetry which I - at
this moment in time - also find inspiring.
>
>I wonder if through the rise of the electronic transmission and publication
of poetry, we will lose this chance connection to other readers across time
by a loss of the 'physicality' of text.
>
>thanks again
>
>maria
>
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