Pdf - Building Imaginary Worlds The Theory And History Of Subcreation

“I didn’t write this,” she said.

“Can I borrow this?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

Elara closed the book. The title on the spine had changed. Now it read: The Unfinished Atlas of Elara Venn.

Dr. Elara Venn had spent fifteen years searching for a ghost. Not a spirit of flesh and bone, but a book: Building Imaginary Worlds: The Theory and History of Subcreation . She had first seen it cited in a crumbling footnote of a 1982 monograph on William Blake. The reference was tantalizing: “Venn, C. (1977). Building Imaginary Worlds . Oxford: Clarendon Press.” “I didn’t write this,” she said

“What is this?” she breathed.

The trail went cold for a decade. Then, on a sabbatical in Iceland, she wandered into a bookbinder’s shop to escape a sleet storm. Behind the counter, under a glass dome, lay a single volume. It was bound in what looked like vellum the color of spoiled milk. The spine read: Subcreation. Venn. 1977. The title on the spine had changed

Her own name.