Note 41 — Chapter VII · Sherwood Anderson or When the Dreamer Awakes

Stephane Mallarmé, a pioneer of modern æsthetics, was himself a victim of a similar spell. At the end of his career he replaced inspiration by throwing haphazard words in black on white. He originated a new process of composition in which words produced their effect by sheer magic, like those Japanese paper-balls which blossom out into a display of flowers when placed in a glass of water.