A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Page A

mostly horizontal or vertical, and crossed each other with either a little jump-mark or a dot; they made right-angle turns to get around doohickii, and they never stopped in mid-space but always terminated at a squiggle, quiggle, quid, or thingumbob. It made so little sense that a long period of staring at it produced a stupefying effect. Nevertheless he began work at duplicating every detail, even to the copying of a central brownish stain which he thought might be the blood of the Blessed Martyr, but which Brother Jeris suggested was only the stain left by a decayed apple core.
    Brother Jeris, who had joined the apprentice copyroom at the same time as Brother Francis, seemed to enjoy teasing him about the project. “What, pray,” he asked, squinting over Francis” shoulder, “is the meaning of “Transistorized Control System for Unit Six-B,” learned Brother?”
    “Clearly, it is the title of the document,” said Francis, feeling slightly cross.
    “Clearly. But what does it mean?”
    “It is the name of the diagram which lies before your eyes, Brother Simpleton. What does ‘Jeris’ mean?”
    “Very little, I’m sure,” said Brother Jeris with mock humility. “Forgive my density, please. You have successfully defined the name by pointing to the creature named, which is truly the meaning of the name. But now the creature-diagram itself represents something, does it not? What does the diagram represent?”
    “The transistorized control system for unit six-B, obviously.”
    Jeris laughed. “Quite clear! Eloquent! If the creature is the name, then the name is the creature. ‘Equals may be substituted for equals,’ or ‘The order of an equality is reversible,’ but may we proceed to the next axiom? If ‘Quantities equal to the same quantity may substitute for each other’ is true, then is there not some ‘same quantity’ which both name and diagram represent? Or is it a closed system?”
    Francis reddened. “I would imagine,” he said slowly, after pausing to stifle his annoyance, “that the diagram represents an abstract concept, rather than a concrete thing. Perhaps the ancients had a systematic method for depicting a pure thought. It’s clearly not a recognizable picture of an object.”
    “Yes, yes, it’s clearly un recognizable!” Brother Jeris agreed with a chuckle.
    “On the other hand, perhaps it does depict an object, but only in a very formal stylistic way-so that one would need special training or-”
    “Special eyesight?”
    “In my opinion, it’s a high abstraction of perhaps transcendental value expressing a thought of the Beatus Leibowitz.”
    “Bravo! Now what was he thinking about?”
    “Why-’Circuit Design,’” said Francis, picking the term out of the block of lettering at the lower right.
    “Hmmm, what discipline does that art pertain to, Brother? What is its genus, species, property, and difference? Or is it only an ‘accident’?”
    Jeris was becoming pretentious in his sarcasm, Francis thought, and decided to meet it with a soft answer. “Well, observe this column of figures, and its heading: ‘Electronics Parts Numbers.’ There was once, an art or science, called Electronics, which might belong to both Art and Science.”
    “Uh-huh! Thus settling ‘genus’ and ‘species.’ Now as to ‘difference,’ if I may pursue the line. What was the subject matter of Electronics?”
    “That too is written,” said Francis, who had searched the Memorabilia from high to low in an attempt to find clues which might make the blueprint slightly more comprehensible-but to very small avail. “The subject matter of Electronics was the electron,” he explained.
    “So it is written, indeed. I am impressed. I know so little of these things. What, pray, was the ‘electron?’“
    “Well, there is one fragmentary source which alludes to it as a “Negative Twist of Nothingness.’“
    “What! How did they negate a nothingness? Wouldn’t that make it a