A friend of mine once said that once a writer puts a work out into the world, it takes on a life of its own. The words are on the pages. The pages are bound. The stiff cover boards keep them all orderly and together. But the intent of the work, how people wrap their thoughts around it, who quotes it to make what type of argument– all that shapes the work into something new.
You might say that the work is emergent. It is a becoming.
Of course, many things that are written for fleeting entertainment won’t gain significant independence. But those words that stay true, that trigger some type of response in the face of reality; those words that inspire the reader to share something they feel valuable. Those are the books which gain a following, are massaged for all their meaning and evolve into something new again.
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