Being an emergent actant

This writing thing I'm doing at this very instant is something that comes and goes. I don't always have something to say or the clarity to express what I have in mind to say. I'm not always reading, reflecting and journaling in the ways that usually give me more to say. I don't always have the time to take away from all my other alliances, obligations and pursuits to do this thing. I'm not always seated at my objective mediator (a.k.a. my web-connected computer) to assemble typed text for publishing in html for web pages and XML for RSS feeds.

So when it comes together for me to be doing this writing thing (or enacting an author role for the time being), a lot ties in relationally. I don't get a picture of contradictions propelling me to create a blog post. I don't imagine that I'm dealing with persistent objects. I don't see myself engaged in activities supported by tools in hand and in mind. I'm not making irreversible progress toward some desired outcome. That makes this network of alliances into bad news for dialectical materialists and activity theorists who frame this production of writing in all those ways.

What comes together comprises an emergent actant. The assemblage will disassemble once I return to everything else. In the meantime, there are these many alliances that give me something to say, the clarity to say it, as well as the time and mediational means to say it. I'm not functioning in isolation or by indulging in heroic individualism. I'm teaming up with everything else that comes together. This is a collaboration with every contributing alliance that can fall apart at any moment or continue until news of another difference reassembles my alliances of the moment.