There is a line in Kingsley Amis's The Old Devils running something like "More and more, Alun's life was coming to consist of being told what he knew, at dictat

There is a line in Kingsley Amis's The Old Devils running something like "More and more, Alun's life was coming to consist of being told what he knew, at dictation speed." A book on maps that I got in elementary school laid this all out clearly. Every few years since about 1980, someone announces it as amazing news.