Bricks

We are asked to think of our contributions to the literature of our academic fields as bricks being added to the great edifice of knowledge. Yet :

1. We know that many of the bricks get discarded before being put into the walls

2. We know that many accepted bricks are built into obscure rooms and wings that receive few visitors

3. We know that the edifice is remodeled frequently, so that placement in current high traffic areas does not guarantee that those bricks will continue to be seen.

But what if the bricks were not just linked to those around them in the wall? What if the structure didn't have a top or a bottom. Intellectual zero-G: no preferred directions. To change metaphors: a page with infinitely extendable margins.

What we contribute to is not a solid wall, but a process or event. An event of linkage, of new topologies across intellectual distances that are themselves products of linkages.

Hypertext.