There are many that I know and they know it. They are all of them repeating and I hear it. I love it and I tell it. I love it and now I will write it. This is now a history of my love of it. I hear it and I love it and I write it. They repeat it. They live it and I see it and I hear it. They live it and I hear it and I see it and I love it and now and always I will write it. There many kinds of men and women and I know it. They repeat it and I hear it and I love it. This is now a history of the way they do it. This is now a history of the way I love it. – Gertrude Stein, The Making of Americans, 1934

This passage introduces Marcus Boon’s 2010 book, In Praise of Copying, a copy of which I have acquired once again through the graces of my university’s library.

I’m reminded of a night back in Montreal when I was in grad school, reading passages from Stein’s The Making of Americans out loud for some hours with my roommate. As anyone familiar with the text might guess, something like an altered state of consciousness was achieved. I recommend the technique to psychonauts everywhere.

Here’s to you Gabrielle, it’s been too long.