Reinterpreting the Past

There, said Pliny the Elder, I told you Plato wouldn't have much idea of a real bicycle.

Yes, I agreed, but you must admit he talked his way out of the situation quite well.

He certainly did, said Pliny. Philosophers are like that. They can wriggle out of anything just by changing the meaning of words. Give me natural history any day. You know where you are with it. Something is either true or it isn't.

Mmm, I said doubtfully. Some of the things you wrote in yours are difficult to put in either category.

Nonsense, said Pliny. They were either true or not true at the time, that is what matters.

I know what you mean, Pliny, I nodded. Remember the artist who made the paper boats out of the encyclopedias? Well, one of the other things she did was to spend a whole year sandpapering the text from a set of thirty two Time-Life World Library books from the 1960s, leaving only the photographs. They were on display at the exhibition too. It was the most extraordinary thing, to see all these books with the text so painstakingly removed. It forced you to reinterpret the photographs.

What has that to do with my works? asked Pliny, suspiciously. I didn't include any photographs.