When photography was new, people used it to suggest the endurance of the departed.

[Fiona Shnapple]

An image authors find useful? There it is in The Pale King. In
Bleeding Edge. Of course, in The House of the seven Gables.

Why these old photographs?

When photography was new, people used it to suggest the endurance of
the departed.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/when-cameras-took-pictures-of-ghosts/281010/
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l