my fellow watch-the-floppy-disk-fall-into-obsolescence writer Ander Monson writes often about literary topologies, which is sometimes vaguely described as the science of place. i think a better definition is the study of place over form. Monson says topology is “about electricity or water or anything that flows equally throughout a form, that moves through channels.” in other words (i think) it’s the study of looking at form as if you were water. “Place” then, is not the exact shape of something, rather the way something is put together. for example, (from wikipedia), a circle and a square can be seen as the same thing, they are both one dimensional, and both separate the plane into two parts, the inside and the outside. in a similar way, a coffee cup can easily be confused for a donut.

here, though, is an example of form over form.