-tree`) into a reader object of type `(int->int)-> int tree`: something
-that, when you apply it to an `int->int` function returns an `int
-tree` in which each leaf `x` has been replaced with `(f x)`.
+tree`) into a reader monadic object of type `(int -> int) -> int
+tree`: something that, when you apply it to an `int -> int` function
+`f` returns an `int tree` in which each leaf `i` has been replaced
+with `f i`.
+
+[Application note: this kind of reader object could provide a model
+for Kaplan's characters. It turns an ordinary tree into one that
+expects contextual information (here, the `λ f`) that can be
+used to compute the content of indexicals embedded arbitrarily deeply
+in the tree.]
+
+With our previous applications of the Reader monad, we always knew
+which kind of environment to expect: either an assignment function, as
+in the original calculator simulation; a world, as in the
+intensionality monad; an individual, as in the Jacobson-inspired link
+monad; etc. In the present case, we expect that our "environment"
+will be some function of type `int -> int`. "Looking up" some `int` in
+the environment will return us the `int` that comes out the other side
+of that function.
+
+ type 'a reader = (int -> int) -> 'a;; (* mnemonic: e for environment *)
+ let reader_unit (a : 'a) : 'a reader = fun _ -> a;;
+ let reader_bind (u: 'a reader) (f : 'a -> 'b reader) : 'b reader = fun e -> f (u e) e;;
+
+It would be a simple matter to turn an *integer* into an `int reader`:
+
+ let int_readerize : int -> int reader = fun (a : int) -> fun (modifier : int -> int) -> modifier a;;
+ int_readerize 2 (fun i -> i + i);;
+ - : int = 4