★★★★★

Highlights

We are absurdly accustomed to the miracle of a few written signs being able to contain immortal imagery, involutions of thought, new worlds with live people, speaking, weeping, laughing. We take it for granted so simply that in a sense, by the very act of brutish routine acceptance, we undo the work of the ages, the history of the gradual elaboration of poetical description and construction, from the treeman to Browning, from the caveman to Keats. What if we awake one day, all of us, and find ourselves utterly unable to read? I wish you to gasp not only at what you read but at the miracle of its being readable (so I used to tell my students).

Zembla, a distant northern land.

Lightning bolt
About Pale Fire

Lightning bolt
This post is referenced by:

Lightning bolt
About the author

I'm Justin Duke — a software engineer, writer, and founder. I currently work as the CEO of Buttondown, the best way to start and grow your newsletter, and as a partner at Third South Capital.

Lightning bolt
Greatest hits

Lightning bolt
Elsewhere

Lightning bolt
Don't miss the next essay

Get a monthly roundup of everything I've written: no ads, no nonsense.