WHAT A BOOK IS
A book is a sequence
of spaces.
Each of these
spaces is perceived at a different moment - a book is also a sequence of
moments.
A book is not a case
of words, nor a bag of words, nor a bearer of words.
A writer, contrary to
the popular opinion, does not write books.
A writer writes
texts.
The fact, that a text
is contained in a book, comes only from the dimensions of such a text; or,
in the case of a series of short texts (poems, for instance), from their
number.
A literary (prose) text
contained in a book ignores the fact that the book is an autonomous space-time
sequence.
A series of more or less short texts (poems or other) distributed through
a book following any particular ordering reveals the sequential nature of
the book.
It reveals it,
perhaps uses it; but it does not incorporate it or assimilate it.
Written language is
a sequence of signs expanding within the space; the reading of which occurs
in the time.
A book is a space-time sequence.
Books existed originally
as containers of (literary) texts.
But books, seen as autonomous realities, can contain any (written) language,
not only literary language, or even any other system of signs.
Among languages, literary
language (prose and poetry) is not the best fitted to the nature of books.
A book may be the accidental
container of a text,. the structure of which is irrelevant to the book:
these are the books of bookshops and libraries.
A book can also exist as an autonomous and self-sufficient form, including
perhaps a text that emphasises that form, a text that is an organic part
of that form: here begins the new art of making books.
In the old art the writer
judges himself as being not responsible for the real book. He writes the
text. The rest is done by the servants, the artisans, the workers, the others.
In the new art writing a text is only the first link in the chain going
from the writer to the reader. In the new art the writer assumes the responsibility
for the whole process.
In the old art the writer
writes texts.
In the new art the writer makes books.
To make a book
is to actualize its ideal space-time sequence by means of the creation of
a parallel sequence of signs, be it linguistic or other.