On lexias

In a world of hypertext, a world with blurred boundaries, a lexia can survive based on its usefulness, its wit, its clarity of thought regardless of the author. If as a writer, I have one great idea in a mountain of dross, other writers can link themselves to the lexia that reflects that one great idea; Landow's notion of the self as "centerless network" is useful here--entire schools of thought can be constructed out of individual ideas by seperate authors, even if they themselves did not see the connection. More importantly, entire texts--entire authors--can be constructed out of lexias by seperate authors, and then read by the world at large. The lexia, in a sense, is removed from the parenting author, to succeed or fail on its own merits. The successful lexia propogates itself memetically, by ensuring that those who encounter it will repeat, recite, transmit, transmute, mutate, and otherwise make it their own. The failed lexia does none of this, and is soon forgotten.