James Reath is a Wellcome Trust Early Career Research Fellow in English Literature at the University of Exeter (2023-2027). He received his PhD in English Literature from University College London (UCL) in 2022 and has held visiting fellowships at Yale University (2021) and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin (2022).

• List of FiguresAcknowledgementsGeneral Introduction: Here Comes EverythingPart I. The FuzzyIntroduction: Welcome to Errorland1. History of the Doodle: Pareidoliamania and the Cultural Logic of Squiggles and Inkblots2. The Iridescent: Seven Types of Colour-Writing, Poikilos-Mētis and the Surface of SurfacesPart II. The GreyIntroduction: Untitled3. After Exactitude: Idiometry and the Art of Mechanical PrecisionPart III. The ViscousIntroduction: Abscess Sky Index4. Plasmodial Form: Wortschleim and the Mesomorphic Imagination of Protoplasm5. Theory of the Groovy: Latex, Jelly, Nylon, RuthmosCoda: On Floating BodiesSelected BibliographyNotesIndex

With imagination and rigor, verve and flair, James Reath explores modernism’s fondness for squiggling, oozing, grooving, dawdling, fuzzy, mesomorphic forms. Sensitive to the power of ‘weak’ forces, brilliantly attuned to the intersection of literature and science, Anexact Form and Modernist Culture is a delight.

James Reath is a Wellcome Trust Early Career Research Fellow in English Literature at the University of Exeter (2023-2027). He received his PhD in English Literature from University College London (UCL) in 2022 and has held visiting fellowships at Yale University (2021) and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin (2022).

• List of FiguresAcknowledgementsGeneral Introduction: Here Comes EverythingPart I. The FuzzyIntroduction: Welcome to Errorland1. History of the Doodle: Pareidoliamania and the Cultural Logic of Squiggles and Inkblots2. The Iridescent: Seven Types of Colour-Writing, Poikilos-Mētis and the Surface of SurfacesPart II. The GreyIntroduction: Untitled3. After Exactitude: Idiometry and the Art of Mechanical PrecisionPart III. The ViscousIntroduction: Abscess Sky Index4. Plasmodial Form: Wortschleim and the Mesomorphic Imagination of Protoplasm5. Theory of the Groovy: Latex, Jelly, Nylon, RuthmosCoda: On Floating BodiesSelected BibliographyNotesIndex

With imagination and rigor, verve and flair, James Reath explores modernism’s fondness for squiggling, oozing, grooving, dawdling, fuzzy, mesomorphic forms. Sensitive to the power of ‘weak’ forces, brilliantly attuned to the intersection of literature and science, Anexact Form and Modernist Culture is a delight.

James Reath is a Wellcome Trust Early Career Research Fellow in English Literature at the University of Exeter (2023-2027). He received his PhD in English Literature from University College London (UCL) in 2022 and has held visiting fellowships at Yale University (2021) and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin (2022).

• List of FiguresAcknowledgementsGeneral Introduction: Here Comes EverythingPart I. The FuzzyIntroduction: Welcome to Errorland1. History of the Doodle: Pareidoliamania and the Cultural Logic of Squiggles and Inkblots2. The Iridescent: Seven Types of Colour-Writing, Poikilos-Mētis and the Surface of SurfacesPart II. The GreyIntroduction: Untitled3. After Exactitude: Idiometry and the Art of Mechanical PrecisionPart III. The ViscousIntroduction: Abscess Sky Index4. Plasmodial Form: Wortschleim and the Mesomorphic Imagination of Protoplasm5. Theory of the Groovy: Latex, Jelly, Nylon, RuthmosCoda: On Floating BodiesSelected BibliographyNotesIndex

With imagination and rigor, verve and flair, James Reath explores modernism’s fondness for squiggling, oozing, grooving, dawdling, fuzzy, mesomorphic forms. Sensitive to the power of ‘weak’ forces, brilliantly attuned to the intersection of literature and science, Anexact Form and Modernist Culture is a delight.