Obsessed with perspective

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This condition was characteristic of Renaissance paintings: "The stable at Bethlehem often boasts a decorative floor, and St. John finds a small area of tile paving to stand on in the wilderness." -- Quoted in Edward Tufte, Visual Explanations

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  1. Anonymous1:53 AM

    Tufte is a gold mine. I had to pull it off the shelf, and I noticed that you omitted Lawrence Wright as the writer whom Tufte was quoting.

    I was reading a book* the other day, when I thought of Tufte and I realized just how awful the note system was. Notes were numbered by chapter, and collected in a section at the back of the book. so in order to read the note the process is...

    1. look at the note number, and then to the top of the right hand page, where the chapter name appears.

    2. off to the table of contents, where the chapter numbers are given next to the chapter name. This step is necessary because the chapters are identified only by number in the notes section.

    3. back to the end notes.

    4. back to the text to verify the note number

    5. read the note.

    Whereas in Tufte's books, you just move your eye to the left and read the note! I suppose not everyone gets the luxury of such large pages.

    *hard to believe, I'm sure.

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