Markus Krajewski, Peter Krapp (translator) · 2002 · EPUB · Calibre ID 8480
Resurfaced in The Dated Slip (2026-10-10).
Role in the triad
Theory and genealogy: the card box as machine and ‘second memory’; supplies the vocabulary that lets the other two be read as instruments.
Why this book
Explains why a slip, unlike a book, can surprise its author over time; Moser’s warning about the unfinishable box anticipates the posthumous editing of the other two; names Nabokov once as the ‘apotheosis’ of the line but stops at 1929.
Quotations
Verified against the book’s own text on the day of the reading.
- “The force taking effect is the user’s hand. A book lacks this property of free motion, and owing to its rigid form it is not a paper machine.” (ch. 1, Introduction)
- “Finally, cut out everything you have copied with a pair of scissors; arrange the slips as you desire, first into larger clusters which can then be subdivided again as often as necessary.” (ch. 2, Temporary Indexing)
- “In isolation, every index card is in peril of becoming a data corpse; to live, it must enter into relations with the remaining content.” (ch. 4, In Praise of the Cross-Reference)
- “What surprises is not only the difference in understanding between this time and that time—ah, so that’s how I took this at that time—but also the potential path that was not developed the first time the author noticed it, but looks promising when accessed again.” (ch. 4)
- “Storing states of knowledge and (via their contacts with the interface) helping to catalyze future thoughts, index cards know more than their author.” (ch. 4, On the Gradual Manufacturing of Thoughts in Storage)
- “Three days after his death, one of his students begins a careful autopsy of his index cards.” (Notes, ch. 4, n. 5)
Themes
card catalog · cross-reference · Gessner · Jean Paul · Jungius · Kleist · Luhmann · Moser · paper machine · second memory · slip box