Perception, she said was a fraud; had not St Paul said we see in a glass darkly, had not Wordsworth said we see by glimpses? ‘This piece of fruit cake’ – she waved it between bites – ‘this cake doesn’t need me to eat it to make it edible. It exists without me.’ That was a bad example, but I knew what she meant. It meant that to create was a fundament, to appreciate, a supplement.
