Lost Marginalia

 At the end of the 17th century, John Locke put forth the idea that we are the product of experience, a radical idea at the time that quickly became a propelling thought of the Enlightenment. If we are the product of experience, then each of us has a unique self in which we become our narratives. So begins the literary category of the novel, in which the hero or heroine sets out in the world and with each adventure becomes a self. Locke’s idea is clearly seen in William Hogarth’s narrative series of prints, “The Rake’s Progress” (1737). Our hero is depicted in the first print as a callow young fellow with smooth, moon-faced features, or Locke’s tabula rasa. By the 8th and final print, he has descended into madness with the marks of his waywardness visible (or impressed) upon his features. The sequence of time is linear and forward-moving (“and then….”).