Cats (and Creditors) Do Not Exist

Literature is an unclosed transaction in the sense that one party, the reader, considers the work a gift outright and not a loan, that is, a provisional displacement of property which must one day be replaced.2 For this reason, literary debts are understood as chimerical obligations that need not be repaid. Plagiarism is theorized away as imitatio; successful creative performances redeem larceny. “Toute l’histoire des arts pourrait être envisagée sous l’aspect d’un jeu d’emprunts et de prêts--qui font moins problème que leur restitution--, un échange à distance où l’oubli ne joue pas moins son rôle que la mémoire et la vraie ou fausse reconnaissance.”3 Every debt, including the everyday monetary debt, becomes a literary debt as soon as it is understood as an unfinished transaction. The creditor wants to know one thing: when will the transaction be closed? Whereas the debtor may prefer to ask another question: does it really need to be closed?