Monday, January 22, 2018
Perfection
Donald Richie (1924-2013), Journals (summer, 1947; he = Eugene Langston):
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We were talking about The New Yorker, a publication excluded from both commissary and PX after it ran John Hersey's issue-long account of Hiroshima.
"It never contains a typographical error," he said.
I, believing in unavoidable sloppiness, said that this was impossible.
"Oh no, it's not," he said mildly. "It is quite possible. All that is necessary is that every error is caught. I admire the editor."
Perfection was possible, all one had to do was to take all possible care. I watched him doing so. When he practiced his calligraphy no mistake was made—the forming of the kanji, the width of the stroke, the pressure of the brush—everything was as it ought to be. Methodical, he built up, line upon line, his ideal world.
