Someone must have built the very first part of the Clockwork Book because things like the Book don't just happen. They're always somebody's idea. But because the Clockwork Book is... well, clockwork, it has many moving parts. Quite a few of those parts support the Book by rolling out new pages, expanding its massive cover, and, in short, Making More Book. The Book is much more, today, than it could have been on the day its gears began to turn. As a result it really doesn't matter who created the Book, or why; we suppose that the Book knows, but in order to find out you would need to ask the Book. Which is exactly the kind of thing that most people are too smart to do.
The Clockwork Book of Retropolis sits in its lair below the city and contains answers. It accumulates stories. This is its only function. (Apart from Making More Book, you suggest: but these two are actually the same thing.)
Its huge graven face looms over the stainless steel sheets that are its pages and when it's not otherwise occupied, which is most of the time, it reads. From time to time it adds a footnote or a cross-reference. But mostly, it reads. And it waits.
Because in spite of tradition, in spite of common sense, and in spite of natural selection... the Book has visitor
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June 19th, 2011 at 8:56 pm
I love clocks, I love books, gee, I guess I’m just in love with the clockwork book! I was very impressed with that short video I saw somewhere on the website of how its eyes iris open and shut.
Terrific that the pictures can enlarge – thanks MUCH for that!
June 20th, 2011 at 12:30 am
That would be this video. Really, though, I didn’t design the mechanism; I only simulated it :).
I’m glad you like the embiggification of the images. I’m always surprised, when I look at the site stats, how few people seem to take advantage of that. But we like it!
August 5th, 2017 at 1:08 am
Is that a daisy-wheel print device above its head for imprinting characters?
August 5th, 2017 at 9:33 am
That’s exactly what it is, though it’s more an engraving than an imprinting device. Well spotted!
