ABSTRACT
A written text is a structure in space that also implies a structure in time: in some sense writing turns time into space, with a written text being like a musical score. The score is a visual pattern of barlines, notes, rests, and dy namic markings, but the pattern only makes sense when read as a sequence of measures. Most of us can read music, if at all, only by playing it on an in strument, but a good musician can read the score directly, activating the musical signs in his or her head. Those who can only read music by playing it are like people who read verbal texts by saying the words aloud: they are al most entirely absorbed by the unfolding temporal structure of the music. The musician, however, can appreciate the second dimension, the ‘Verti cal” structure of the score as well. A thorough reading of text or music may require attention to the space as well as the time of the writing. Once again, the writing technology used plays its role in defining the relationship be tween the time and space of the text. In a medieval codex the spatial struc ture is the pattern of rubrication and various sizes of letters; in a printed book it is the arrangement into paragraphed pages; in today’s computers it is the pattern of text windows and images on the screen. The temporal dimen sion of a text is created by the reader’s moment-by-moment encounter with these structures.
