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the whole body ofknowledge, but ofhow to make a relevant selection ofit available.
Collinson quotes H.G.Wells, who in 1936/7 pointed out the need for a new type of
encyclopaedia, which he suggested should be called the 'World Encyclopaedia', to cope
with the intellectual and practical needs of the twentieth century. ''Wells emphasised
that there was no necessity for encyclopaedias to be composed of'special articles rather
hastily written, in what has been the tradition of Encyclopaedias since the days of
Diderot's heroic effort'. Instead, he suggested that {...} the World Encyclopaedia should
comprise 'selections, extracts, quotations, very carefully assembled with the approval of
outstanding authorities in each subject, carefully collated and edited and critically
presented. It would not be a miscellany, but a concentration, a clarification and a
synthesis."'106
A similar argument can be found in Vannevar Bush's proposal of his memex machine,
in which he argues that with the help of his machines readers could build up personal
trail-like networks through the information:
Wholly new forms of encyclopaedias will appear, ready-made with a mesh of
associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and
there amplified. The lawyer has at his touch the associated opinions and decisions of
his whole experience, and of the experience of friends and authorities. The patent
attorney has on call the millions ofissued patents, with familiar trails to every point of
his client's interest. The physician, puzzled by its patient's reactions, strikes the trail
established in studying an earlier similar case, and runs rapidly through analogous
case histories, with side references to the classics for the pertinent anatomy and
histology. The chemist, struggling with the synthesis of an organic compound, has
all the chemical literature before him in his laboratory, with trails following the
analogies ofcompounds, and side trails to their physical and chemical behaviour.':"
The objective, all-encompassing nature of an encyclopaedia is replaced by a more
subjective, individual approach; and in this light the encyclopaedia format becomes
feasible for fiction. At first view encyclopaedias and fiction appear to be opposite
extremes: while the former represents a static cross-section of information, the latter
implies conventions oftemporal narrative development, andwhile the former is based on
the impersonal nature of factual knowledge) the latter embodies the deeply personal
nature of experience. But in the above context, the encyclopaedia novel appears as a
106 Collison, Encyclopaedias, p.I].
107 Bush, "As We May Think", no page numbers.
Chapter 2 - page67