Victor Hugo. Notre Dame Cathedral (№ 373100)

The book will kill the building.
The invention of the printing press is the greatest historical event. In him the germ of all revolutions. It is a completely new means of expressing human thoughts; thinking takes on a new form, rejecting the old. This means that symbolical serpent which since the days of Adam has represented intelligence, irrevocably changed the skin.
The printed word idea has become durable as ever; she is winged, elusive, indestructible. It mingles with the air. During the architecture idea was turned into a stone colossus and authoritatively took possession of a certain age and a certain space. Now it becomes a flock of birds, flying on all four sides, and occupies all points in time and in space.
Repeat - it is impossible not to see that the idea thus becomes almost indelible. Losing strength, she gained vitality. Durability it replaces for immortality. You can destroy any mass, but how to eradicate that ubiquitous? Comes the flood, will disappear under water mountains, and the birds will still fly, and let him survive at least one ark floating on the raging elements, birds will fall on him. survives him, together with him will be attended with loss of water, and a new world that will arise from the chaos of waking up, will see how over him hovers a winged and living thought of the world sunken.
And when I am convinced that this method of expression is not only the most reliable, but also more simple, most convenient, most accessible to all; when you think that it is not associated with bulky devices and does not require heavy tools; when compared to the thought that for the realization of the building was forced to move four or five other arts, a whole ton of gold, a whole mountain of stones, a whole forest of rafters, an army of workers - when compare it with the idea, which takes the form of a book, which is enough to have a small amount of paper, ink and pen, can we wonder that the human mind preferred printing architecture? Cross suddenly the original river channel dug below its level, and the river leaves the old channel.