Edgar Allan Poe, a press man and, like Shelley, a science-fictioneer, correctly analyzed the poetic process. Conditions of newspaper serial publication led both him and Dickens to the process of writing backward. This means simultaneity of all parts of a composition. Simultaneity compels sharp focus on effect of a thing made. Simultaneity is the form of the press in dealing with Earth City. Simultaneity is the formula for the writing of both the detective story and symbolist poem. These are derivatives (one “low” and one “high”) of the new technological culture. Simultaneity is related to the telegraph, as the telegraph to math and physics.