bibliomancy.04.09.2025

And such a one might say: We would do better to think of our task as that of defining control directly over units of information, rather than over the texts or copies of texts in which such units of information are to be found assembled and dispersed in a complicated way. The suggestion is not fanciful; people are found who will say that the job of libraries, or at least libraries of the future, is to furnish information rather than copies of texts, and one who says that about libraries can be easily imagined to say the same about bibliographic control.

Wilson, Patrick. Two Kinds of Power: An Essay on Bibliographical Control. UC Press Voices Revived. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2022, p. 15-16.


Most of us have experienced changes in rendering: you notice something once (or someone points it out to you) and then begin noticing it everywhere. As a simplistic example, my attention is now “renders” to me a world more full of birds than before I was an avid bird watcher. Visitors to the de Young had their attention re-mapped by David Hockney to include small details, rich colors, and kaleidoscopic arrangement; the John Cage performance remapped my attention to include sound beyond melodic music. When the pattern of your attention has changed, you render your reality differently. You being to move and act in a different kind of world.

Odell, Jenny. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House, 2019, p. 210-11.


The current, purely electoral system was in their view not representative, and too susceptible to corruption, and the power of big money weighed too heavily. Selection by lot could help. Random citizens would be taken from existing lists used for jury service (in the United States these are more inclusive than electoral rolls) to serve as Members of Parliament for three years.

Van Reybrouck, David, and Liz Waters. Against Elections: The Case for Democracy. London: The Bodley Head, 2016, p.134.