The fact is we didn39;t get along well until photography came into its own. Then —— motion pictures in the early twentieth century. Radio. Television. Things began to have mass.... ...And because they had mass, they became simpler. Once, books appealed to a few people, here, there, everywhere. They could afford to be different. The world was roomy. But then the world got full of eyes and elbows and mouths. Double, triple, quadruple population. Films and radios, magazines, books levelled down to a sort of paste pudding norm.... ...Classics cut to fit fifteen-minute radio shows, then cut again to fill a two-minute book column, winding up at last as a ten- or twelve-line dictionary resume.... ...Life becomes one big pratfall; everything bang; boff, and wow!34;