The miniature…implies a relation, a discrepancy. […] Discrepancy of size is a form of distortion, and all forms of distortion shock us into attention: the inattentive and jaded eye, passing through a world without interest, helplessly perceives that something in the bland panorama is not as it should be. The eye is irritated into attention. It is compelled to perform an act of recognition. Perhaps for the first time since childhood, it SEES.
Steven Millhauser
