This is the quality of resonance that we’re after, such that the book means one thing to ourselves, and one thing to the next person, and continuing communities of readers are able to project their own meanings onto it, and if you’re really lucky, or really good, continuing generations of readers. Staying in print is really about the ability to continue resonating long after the historical moment in which you made your novel.
“I wonder if they have the memories we do: sleepwake, working on our tans, ribbons of flesh twirling, long isabelline bus rides of dusk, necks of tulle, promises made on hands and knees, wet grass, actual heartache or actual love. Or the likeness of love, the shadow aspect. O, a medley of skin trying to find an answer. If they want you to be a tulip, you will be a tulip, no matter your shape. You will always ever be a tulip, a black one, a wilted thing, a tulip by the sea, the character of a tulip. You will be the seedling unsprung.”
Lisa Marie Basile | Nympholepsy