it was aimed
at children, required an element of play. The same system of
imbedding standardization in the psyches of children also helped
make them good consumers, willing to accept standardized products,
putting aside the long tradition of bargaining for something better in
daily transactions. It's hard to argue against mass education, but since
one of its major advance evolved as an adjunct to wage slavery, it's
also hard to miss the losses involved -- and hard not to wish it had
been brought about in a better way.

Book production went through several related stages of
development. For the most part, renaissance printers worked their type
to the point of near illegibility. This and the rough finishes of the
papers they used required a hefty punch in impression. As markets
expanded, consumer purchasing power increased, and smoother
printing surfaces became morereadily available, printers strove for a
greater evenness of impression and inking. Binders worked towards
simpler and quicker methods. Since books could be mass produced,
they didn't have to last long: this took a great deal of strain off the
book binders as it took the strain off of the bindings of individual
books.

As books became standardized, it became possible for some
people to read silently more quickly than they could speak. This
capability has been systematized and codified in the 20th century as
speed reading. Taught nearly everywhere, to children and adults alike,
this ability can allow an adept to read more in a week than
Shakespeare read in his lifetime. When the 20th century was still
relatively young, Beatrice Warde published her most important essay
"The Crystal Goblet." This work stands with such classics as
Trithemius's De Laude Scriptorum