[T]he pen which I possess is the same as all other pens…. But in addition I possess in it the possibility of writing, of tracing with it certain characteristic forms and color (for I combine the instrument itself and the ink which I use in it). These characteristic forms and color with their meaning are condensed in the pen as well as the paper, its special resistance, its odor, etc. With all possession there is made [a] crystallizing synthesis…. Each possessed object which raises itself on the foundation of the world, manifests the entire world….
—
Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness
