“So in any communication act aimed at creating a meaningful image in another’s head, I have to dichotomise their state of knowing. I have to create something more particular by making other things more general. To create a figure, I also have to create the ground. The Empire State Building is just an example of a particular~general that is so routinised within the average Western mind that the effort of creating a dichotomy can go unremarked. I apparently can do the job mechanically by just citing a “particular” – the Empire State – or a “general” – any tall building.” — John McCrone