"For even though a visible artifact must necessarily predate the language that describes it, the artifact itself, as we stand before it, is always newer and more extensive than any word ever written about it- newer and more extensive, even, than the visual codes incorporated into it, because whether we like it or not, we always confront works of art as that selfless, otherless, unwritable instant of ordinary experience." (166)  This quote pretty much rocked my socks off.  I definitely agree with this idea.  every time I flip through the countless photography magazine lying around my house i always get the same feeling when i look at the photos but most of the time I only read the text once. after that it means nothing to me. No matter how old the magazine ever time I open them I feel like I am experiencing the pictures for the first time and the text written about the photos is always getting older and more outdated.  Amazing.  I also really liked this quote, "The branches are neither long nor short.  They are simply present, precedent to the standards and expectations we impose upon them as we name their attributes, pronouncing them long or short, strong or weak, young or old." (167).  I have always had this thought in the back in my head.  The label of long or short is only your perception of the branches.  To somebody else they may be just the opposite and as soon as you write about the branches the words your write are immediately untrue and outdated.

Alan DuVall