Epoch ReadingField NotesOne-pager 036

Habit devours everything; art exists to make the stone stony — technique roughens the form so perception slows back into life.Victor Shklovsky · Art as Technique · 1917 · Lemon & Reis translation, Lodge reader pp. 16–30

Shklovsky opens by wrecking the maxim everyone parrots — “art is thinking in images” — and replaces the image with the move: habitualization devours works, clothes, furniture, one’s wife, and the fear of war, so art exists to recover the sensation of life. The technique is defamiliarization: make objects unfamiliar, make forms difficult, prolong perception, because the process of perception is the aesthetic end in itself. Tolstoy is the master case — a horse narrating property, an opera described by a man who refuses to know what a stage is — and poetry itself is attenuated, tortuous speech. Started 08.24 at 9:38 P.M., seven minutes after the Frankfurt seal, finished across the next morning and sealed 9:39 A.M. The margins ran it onto Cezanne and faulty hieroglyphs, Potebnya flipped backward, a Logic bar on the meaning of life, the homeowners it makes uncomfy, a 10 Things I Hate About You scene, and the boxed Pierre passage that asks what it means to have your will denied — before the double-starred seal coins the jaded reader with a keen eye.

“started 08/24/26 @ 9:38 P.M.”pp. 1–13, every page inked08 · 25 · 2026
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Where the margins reached

Cezanne · hieroglyphs Potebnya, flipped Frankfurt · will denied Logic · “to live it” 10 Things I Hate About You the uncomfy homeowners SHKLOVSKY 1917
Book → Book Book → World
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The lines he pulled

“The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known.”

p.5, the heaviest underline run of the read · his (A) beside it: “the artist should throw a shroud (?) or twist on the everyday occurence(s).”

“‘And all this is mine, all this is in me, and all this is I,’ thought Pierre. ‘And all this they caught and put in a planked enclosure.’”

p.8, the only fully boxed passage of the set · his (B) inside the box: “What does it mean to have Yourself/will denied (?)”

“An image is not a permanent referent… its purpose is not to make us perceive meaning, but to create a special perception of the object.”

p.9 · tagged with his Jist operator: “The Jist; it is sort of lack a laquer or varnish to dress up our old under-standing of a concept.”

“Material obviously created to remove the automatism of perception… the greatest possible effect is produced through the slowness of the perception.”

p.11, seven continuous underlined lines · his (B): “A level of intricacy & call to action to probe deeply upon reading.”
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The read, page by page

p.1
  1. ✦The start stamp, top margin: “started 08/24/26 @ 9:38 P.M.” · seven minutes after sealing Frankfurt.
  2. AArt in this context is used to generate ideas/emotional connections for us to then picture or evaluate more searchingly (if desired) · at Potebnya’s “art is thinking in images” and the economy-of-mental-effort setup.
p.2
  1. AA literal twist or turn on the school dealing with the labor literal way we decipher everything · at the definition’s survival past the Symbolist downfall.
  2. BThe remembering of Cezanne, a placement of faulty Hieroglyphics · the first shelf-reach of the read, at the imagists.
  3. Chow we may [receive?] the symbols [partially legible] of an artist · top-right, flagged in the decode, never smoothed.
  4. →“The Turn” · his arrow at Potebnya’s conclusion, marking where Shklovsky pivots to attack.
p.3
  1. AManipulation of language to connect w/ the recipients’ imaginings · at poetic imagery as method.
  2. Bgoal is to clearly communicate your impression · imagery that is commonly known is shared or common knowledge · on the Spencer/Avenarius economy-of-effort bracket.
  3. CIt wants to grab images foreign that are acceptable enough to be understood or even feel “remembered”/familiar · bottom margin, the pre-turn summary in his own hand.
p.4
  1. APoetry ≠ prose distinction · at the poetic-vs-practical-language split.
  2. BAs others’ similarity → habit-adjuster; what you will get are reflections in order to cut [to] the chase [partially legible] · at the habituation/unfinished-phrases passage.
  3. CProse: you have to imagine a rough outline, conjured up; whereas poetry — [trails off] · at the divan paragraph, the exact spot the first sitting ended.
p.5
  1. AThe take that rather than being clear the artist should throw a shroud (?) or twist on the everyday occurence(s) · down the whole margin at the stone-stony thesis block.
  2. Bso Shklovsky thinks Potebnya may have it backward (?) point of contention here · at the fable/proverb passage.
  3. Cprompting reflection here through basics [partially legible] · arrowed to Tolstoy’s not-naming move.
p.6
  1. ALong arrow from “Tolstoy uses this technique of ‘defamiliarization’ constantly” to the horse’s own words: “my horse… as strange to me as ‘my land,’ ‘my air,’ ‘my water.’”
  2. B“Wouldn’t it be nice to travel to X or Y” · at speaking-with-words instead of doing.
  3. Cmaking all the home owners uncomfy here · at Kholstomer on private property; then the bottom corner reaches for the record shelf: “Whats the meaning of life? To live it is what I’m guessin’” — Logic, with a smiley.
p.7
  1. A‘representer’ is the key prompting adverb here to provoke speculation of the idea taken for granted (?) · bracketing the whole theater blockquote, quote ticks added around “represented lovers” in the print.
p.8
  1. AThe poignant witty question of a Russian = short, masterful reflection prompting for the reader · at “Why, if people have an affinity of souls, must they sleep together?”
  2. BE.g. What does it mean to have Yourself/will denied (?) · inside the fully boxed Pierre passage — the heaviest ink of the read, one night after Frankfurt’s will sealed.
  3. CChange in POV or looking at the superficial in a certain way drove him to change the existential beliefs · at Tolstoy’s unsettled faith.
p.9
  1. AThe Jist; it is sort of lack a laquer or varnish to dress up our old under-standing of a concept · his core-marker on the image redefined.
  2. Bsort of metaphorical/analogous itself for what the technique is doing at scale · at the lock-and-key erotic figures.
p.10
  1. ✦Bars-LOL(!) · at the Stavyor verse — the silver ink-well and the pen of gold read as bars.
  2. ATechnique itself is the reason for the expressed form of the work · at the riddle passage, black-and-white-and-red-all-over included.
p.11
  1. A“10 things I hate about You” movie scene helping the principle write · defamiliarization caught running a rom-com.
  2. BA level of intricacy & call to action to probe deeply upon reading · on the seven-line automatism run.
p.12
  1. APoetry at that point being so encoded was less clear or ready to be under-stood than prose laden with concealment [partially legible] · at poetry defined as attenuated, tortuous speech.
p.13
  1. ✳The double-starred summary block, largest handwriting of the read · quoted whole in the capstone below.
  2. ✦The done stamp: “Done” + a circled smiley + “08/25/26” + “9:39 A.M” · sealed the morning after it started.

Structure is scaffold; every quoted line is his, verbatim from the annotated pages. Letters are per-page comment order. Uncertain reads keep their flags from the decode, and words he struck out are shown struck, never smoothed.

The summary · his ink, double-starred
“The ‘jaded reader with a keen eye gets excited at any chance to encounter an author or piece of art that challenges their normalized perception of the thing or act described.”
✳ 1 sentence summary! ✳ · pp. 1–13 · sealed “Done 9:39 A.M” 08/25/26 · the smiley circled