palimpsest: De Quincey defined palimpsest as “a membrane or roll cleansed of its manuscript by reiterated successions.” He furthermore asserted: “What else than a natural and mighty palimpsest is the human brain? Such a palimpsest is my brain; such a palimpsest, oh reader! is yours. Everlasting layers of ideas, images, feelings, have fallen upon your brain softly as light. Each succession has seemed to bury all that went before. And yet, in reality, not one has been extinguished.” — Suspiria (1845)