Shape

4 Introduction: Tell Me All About It
that appear to shrink
But when I look rapidly again and again, A’s flip back and forth with X’s. They’re also
in three different orientations
and come in many sizes
It’s animation—A’s and X’s move, yet the lines I’ve drawn don’t. Is this a new kind of
paradox? Shapes are supposed to be static, but mine is unstable. What I see holds still
only if I fix it. I’m free to see anything I choose, as long as I stay within the lines. Parts
are everywhere. And most of them—in fact, all of them I can see—are a complete
surprise.
No matter how I draw the shape
it’s going to be ambiguous. Whatever I do, lines fuse. I can’t tell you what I’ve done
simply looking at the result. There isn’t any record either of what I do or of what I
see in my drawing, and try as I might, I can’t see how to use it to store (conserve) the
details of anything that’s happened before. Let me show you what I mean.
If I draw a line
pick up my pencil, and then go on from where I left off
it doesn’t show that I’ve drawn two lines. I see only a single unbroken line
In the same way, if I have two collinear lines