Others apart sat on a Hill retir'd
In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high
of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will and Fate,
Fix'd Fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute,
and found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost.
— John Milton
This is not the essay I intended to write. This is another essay. This essay provides an embryonic plan for a potential science of literature — not just literature — but literature in the large. It takes as an axiom that literature occurs whenever texts are written that display a high density of meaning, and pursues the consequences across disciplines and paradigms of writing practice. It was written entirely in a system designed for its writing, under an independent concentration created in order to have it be written. To that extent what you are about to read is both inbred and promiscuous, the result of a pool of many sources drained into a single cup. Drink from it, and perhaps you will be moved.
