| Retort | Replicate |
| Holofiction | Hyperfict ion |
| Reply | Duplicate |
It is through seeking her words--and nowhere so much as in writing does one seek words--that a woman initiates herself to the positive image which makes her exist as a subject. The image is motive and motivation. The image is captivating, like an emotion which gathers enthusiasm from its own consciousness.
The image takes on sense from the sense we give words. The words move in the direction of our desire and our desire is double, leaning at once toward a positive image while being also the expression of regret at its absense in the imaginary realm. The desire to apprehend the image of woman as a presence, as a subject, leads us to lament the absence of such an image. In other words, as present subjects we must file a complaint in the name of our inconceivable absence. Here lies the desire for retort.*
*Brossard adds, "In French réplique means also a double, a reproduction, a copy. That I meant both a retort, and a desire for the other woman who resembles us, our positive image of ourselves" (Brossard "Access to Writing: Ritual of the Written Word" 12).