Though we think of the world we perceive through sight as the most fundamental layer of reality, it is itself a representation, subject to the same vicissitudes as language, capable of being dislodged from its motivating context. If we glance at our surroundings, it seems as though the objects before us are immediately present, but anything we see forevermore has been foretold in the library, long before this moment and indifferent to the presence of its contents.