Millions Millions • In this world of synthesis and absorption, we feel...

In this world of synthesis and absorption, we feel confident that we are just as likely to find newness as when our ancestors lived in the world of undoubted — or less doubted — individualism.

This is where sequels and prequels fit in. Not only because their very nature amounts to an admission of dependency — sometimes for good and sometimes for ill. But also because they can make claim to being a port in a storm. As readership drives itself half crazy with sampling, hypertexting and interacting, sequels say to the reader: here is continuity. Here is stability. Here is something you know — taken on a step, sure. Adapted as it’s adopted. But at a certain fundamental level, familiar.

Andrew Motion, “To Be Continued, The Art of the Sequel”