Being heterotextual means knowing that you love the life hidden in books.
You go to bed every night with a different book. You end up loving not just one genre, but all of them, and it is this promiscuity that brings you happiness.
When you are heterotextual, your attention is drawn to stories of different natures: calm texts; violent texts; sad texts and others that delve into your own soul. An essay, a short story, a newspaper article, a poem... nothing is indifferent to those who have been shaped by this condition, because heterotextuality is not innate but acquired.
There are those who acquire the ability to love only a certain genre of stories; that is their comfort zone, and although they allow themselves the occasional fantasy, they always return to the same type of book. They always drink from the same source. These are, of course, homotextual beings.
On the other hand, there is the flexible reader, educated under precise literary paradigms; regimes that, even so, do not prevent them from considering the fun of literature while leading them to lean towards the occasional reading that is different from the usual. They love without remorse or pangs of infidelity, because they are not unfaithful readers; they simply recognize in themselves a different, ambivalent orientation.
The pantextual reader, on the other hand, devours everything in their path. This refers to all literature, both good and questionable (not to say bad). They have an unstoppable libido that makes them grab any text that attracts them, regardless of its quality.
These types of readers live in an alienated, imperturbable happiness. They know they are pantextual and accept it. They do not allow criticism of themselves. We cannot label them as bad readers, as they read both classic authors and hack writers.
The heterotextual lives and moves within this diversity of reading. With an integral literary orientation, they do not impose or boast about their nature: they accept it and feel fortunate. They may try to sway others toward their condition, sometimes successfully, but never with the intention of “reforming” them. When it comes to taste, intellect does not rule.
The important thing, of course, is to know how to respect everyone's tastes. Borges said that loving books is an alternative to happiness and no one can be forced to be happy. After all, the act of reading is not so different from sex: it is enjoyed in personal intimacy, without taboos, and always for the pleasure of doing so.
