Skinner had been much struck by an experience of spontaneous verbal production he’d experienced in his lab; a machine in the background was making a repetitive, rhythmic sound, and Skinner found himself talking along with it, following the beat, silently repeating the phrase “You’ll never get out, you’ll never get out, you’ll never get out.” What seemed like speech, or even, in a small way, like poetry, was actually the result of a kind of autonomous verbal process, requiring nothing like a conscious author.* This provided just the idea Skinner needed to settle his score with literature. What
...more
