The third discussion began with a stack of index cards.
This immediately alarmed Professor Quillibrace.
Mr Blottisham, however, appeared delighted.
"I have been making progress."
"That is seldom reassuring."
"On visual grammar."
"Worse."
Miss Elowen Stray looked up.
"What sort of progress?"
Blottisham spread the cards across a table.
"I have identified categories."
Quillibrace closed his eyes.
"How many?"
"At present?"
"Yes."
"One hundred and thirty-seven."
The Professor's eyes reopened.
"Good heavens."
"I expect several more by the weekend."
The cards covered most of the table.
Each contained a neatly written label.
Salience.
Centrality.
Framing.
Vector.
Narrative process.
Information value.
Modality marker.
Interactional orientation.
And many others besides.
Miss Stray examined them with interest.
"This is quite an extensive inventory."
"Thank you."
"It took months."
"I can imagine."
Blottisham smiled proudly.
"I believe I may now possess a visual grammar."
Quillibrace stared at him.
"You possess a stationery cupboard."
A brief silence followed.
Blottisham looked wounded.
"These are analytical categories."
"I can see that."
"They distinguish different visual phenomena."
"Undoubtedly."
"They allow systematic description."
"Certainly."
"Then why are you looking at them as though they have committed a crime?"
Quillibrace folded his hands.
"Because you have not yet told me whether they constitute a system."
Blottisham frowned.
"What else would they constitute?"
"A catalogue."
The word hung in the air.
Miss Stray tilted her head.
"Those are not the same thing."
"No."
"They often look similar."
"Precisely."
Blottisham picked up a card labelled Framing.
"It seems straightforward enough."
"Does it?"
"Of course."
He gestured toward the table.
"I have identified recurring features."
"Yes."
"I have organised them into categories."
"Indeed."
"I have refined those categories."
"Quite."
"And expanded them where necessary."
"I had noticed."
Blottisham spread his arms triumphantly.
"What more could a system possibly require?"
Quillibrace regarded him with quiet pity.
"Relations."
The rain tapped gently against the windows.
Miss Stray leaned forward.
"Perhaps that is the crucial distinction."
"Very much so."
She picked up several cards.
"A catalogue contains categories."
"Yes."
"A system contains relations among categories."
"Exactly."
Blottisham looked unconvinced.
"They are all related."
"How?"
"They are all visual."
Quillibrace sighed.
"That is not a relation. That is a filing decision."
Miss Stray continued.
"In a systemic-functional system, categories gain value through their relations to alternatives."
"Precisely."
"They exist as contrasts."
"Yes."
"The significance of one option depends upon the other options that could have been selected."
"Exactly."
Blottisham looked down at the cards.
"So merely having categories is insufficient."
"Far from sufficient."
"Even having many categories?"
"Especially having many categories."
This seemed unfair.
Blottisham shuffled the cards defensively.
"But these distinctions are useful."
"Useful and systematic are not synonyms."
"They reveal patterns."
"Excellent."
"They support analysis."
"Very good."
"They help explain images."
Quillibrace raised an eyebrow.
"Do they?"
A silence settled over the room.
Miss Stray looked thoughtful.
"Perhaps they help describe images."
Quillibrace nodded.
"An important distinction."
Blottisham groaned.
"There is always a distinction."
"There is a university attached to the building. One hopes so."
Miss Stray turned one of the cards over thoughtfully.
"A catalogue tells us what kinds of things have been observed."
"Yes."
"A system tells us how possibilities are organised."
"Precisely."
"Those are rather different achievements."
"Entirely."
Blottisham looked at the table.
"So a catalogue is organised by resemblance."
"Usually."
"And a system?"
"By contrast."
The fire crackled softly.
Quillibrace reached for a card labelled Information Value.
"Consider this."
He placed it on the table.
"How is its existence necessitated by the other categories?"
Blottisham blinked.
"I beg your pardon?"
"What network of alternatives defines it?"
"I don't know."
"Why this category rather than another?"
"Because it proved useful."
Quillibrace nodded.
"Exactly."
Miss Stray smiled.
"The category emerged from repeated observations."
"Indeed."
"And then acquired analytical utility."
"Quite."
"But that is different from deriving it from a structured organisation of possibilities."
"Precisely."
Blottisham stared at the cards.
"They do seem rather independent."
"Most catalogues do."
For a while nobody spoke.
Finally Miss Stray broke the silence.
"I think this connects to our previous discussion."
"How so?" asked Blottisham.
"If explanation begins from observed structures, categories naturally accumulate."
Quillibrace nodded.
"One observes variation."
"Then introduces distinctions."
"Yes."
"Then more distinctions."
"Quite."
"And eventually further distinctions to manage the distinctions."
"A familiar academic trajectory."
Blottisham looked suspicious.
"Are you suggesting there is something wrong with refinement?"
"No."
"Classification?"
"No."
"Detailed description?"
"Certainly not."
"Then what is the problem?"
Quillibrace smiled.
"The problem arises when classification mistakes itself for explanation."
The room became quiet.
Miss Stray looked again at the sea of index cards.
"A catalogue can become extraordinarily sophisticated."
"Indeed."
"It can grow indefinitely."
"Often does."
"It can describe more and more phenomena with increasing precision."
"Quite."
"But none of that alone demonstrates the existence of a system."
"Exactly."
Blottisham slowly gathered the cards into a pile.
"I think I begin to understand."
The others waited.
"A catalogue expands by accumulation."
"Yes."
"A system is organised by necessity."
Quillibrace nodded approvingly.
"Very good."
"The categories of a system are constrained by their relations to one another."
"Precisely."
"And without those relations..."
He looked down at his impressive collection.
"...one may simply possess a larger catalogue."
"One hundred and thirty-seven cards' worth," said Quillibrace.
The fire flickered.
Miss Stray smiled.
"And perhaps several more by the weekend."
For the first time that afternoon, Mr Blottisham did not look entirely certain that this was progress.
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