“Body” can refer to multiple aspects of text. Most often, “body” refers to its physicality: its material form on paper or screen on which words are printed or displayed – hence being associated with support; alternatively, it could refer to size or shape, such as being described as having either large or slim bodies, e.g., when discussing books for instance.
More specifically, the body can refer to the content of a text; in this sense, it equates with substance. Moreover, the body refers to the part that includes crucial ideas or arguments in the text and serves as its “meaty core.”
Finally, the body can refer to how a text is organized; it stands for structure. Any text’s body contains its main ideas or arguments — its heart.
Body is an elastic word that can be applied in different contexts to describe various elements within text.
The text requires physical creation; without our bodies, there would be no way for text creation – digital text aside – even more commonplace than ever in recent years, yet still requires our bodies’ involvement for creation and reading purposes. Furthermore, reading requires focused eyes that can read with comprehension as our brain processes the information into meaning for us readers – without which reading text would become meaningless – its abstract nature makes its experience impossible without a body.
