Definitions HQ

A Mental image (n.) may ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠grow by the same law as frost, trees and coral colonies: a dominance that gives structure to everything starting from one chance singularity.

A Mental image (n.) cannot ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠be read in every direction: even gifted visual types can reverse a row left to right but struggle from bottom to top, and still more along a diagonal.

A Mental image (n.) cannot ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠count the columns of the Pantheon, yet would notice at once if one were missing overnight: it is a mask that registers mismatch, not a picture that holds details.

A Mental image (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠never confined to the person who carries it: even memory's symbolic bond, which ties a subject to his own past, is also a road that leads back out to things.

A Mental image (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠not defined by its sense organ but by its situation: a stable simultaneous configuration, an irreversible sequence, a recurrence, which is why images are better treated as groups of signals.