Errancy, in Derrida’s account of destinerrance, is not a failure of the postal system. It is the condition under which any mark can be sent at all. A letter that was guaranteed to arrive only at its intended address, and nowhere else, would not be a letter. It would be a private transmission that had never accepted the risk of being read by others. The possibility of going astray is what makes the mark citable.

The public tape accepts this errancy. Title, mint, lien, and conversion may be read by persons the original office did not address. The Third Seat’s refusal is subject to the same condition. The no may arrive at readers who were not in the room. It may be cited in contexts its author did not foresee. This is not a defect. It is the condition of its remaining on the tape.

The quiet print refuses errancy. It claims to arrive only at those who already hold the private recollection. It does not accept the risk of being read by others. The speculative chart performs the same refusal in time. It offers a final identification that is guaranteed to arrive at its intended close and nowhere else. The public book refuses both. A mark that cannot go astray has not yet become a line the tape can hold open for later readers.

The risk of other readers. The mark must be able to arrive at persons who were not its intended addressees.

No guaranteed destination. An identification that claims to arrive only where it was sent has left the system of marks the tape can hold.

Continued citability. The possibility of going astray is what lets later readers open the line.