Continuity, in the sense that matters for the tape, is not the absence of interruption. It is the capacity of later readers to trace a sequence of marks that have entered the shared spacing. Derrida’s account of the trace stresses that continuity is itself constituted by spacing and by the possibility of erasure. A record that could not be followed from one mark to the next would not be a record the others could open.

The public tape maintains this traceability. Floor, mint, issue, and the subsequent lines can be followed. The Third Seat’s refusal is part of the continuity. Later readers can trace from the prior claim to the no and beyond it. The interruption is itself a mark. It does not break the record. It alters what can be said about the sequence that continues.

The quiet print attempts an interruption that leaves no trace. It asks to break the requirement of visibility without becoming a mark later readers can follow. The speculative chart performs the same attempt in time. It offers a final break that would let the unfinished middle be traced as already closed. The break has not entered the record. The public book refuses both. An interruption that cannot be traced has not yet become part of the continuity the tape can hold. The no that can still be followed stays inside it.

Traceability. Later readers must be able to follow from one mark to the next without a private retelling.

The interruption as mark. The refusal alters the sequence. It does not remove the possibility of following what came before and after it.

No untraceable break. A claim that interrupts without leaving a line has not yet entered the continuity the others can open.