散文家和设计师之间常常并无交流。同样的情况也存在于散文家和造型艺术家,甚至那些与文字打交道的造型艺术家之间。在和语言打交道的人们之间缺乏沟通实在是件具有讽刺意味的事情。散文家和设计师,比方说,常常作为专门家而彼此分开,而不是进入对话。对我这么一个既写散文、又做设计、而且创作二者兼备的作品的人来说,这实在是种奇怪的静默。我知道这是历史的无形之手的影响:抄写员一般并不创造他们转抄在羊皮纸和彩绘抄本之 There is often no communication between essayists and designers. The same is true of essayists and graphic artists, even those who work with texts. It is ironic that there is a lack of communication between people who deal with languages. Essayists and designers, for example, often separate from one another as specialists, rather than into conversation. For someone like me, who writes both prose and design, and works on both, it is a weird quirk. I know this is the impact of the invisible hand of history: scribes generally do not create their transcriptions on parchments and painted transcripts