Umberto Eco on what’s needed to transform a book or movie into a cult object

Deep in Dwight Garner's December 30, 2009 celebration of the film "The Big Lebowski" appeared the following: ••••••••••••••••••••••••• Reading “The Year’s Work in Lebowski Studies,” it’s hard not to recall some of the profound and not-so-goofy things the novelist Umberto Eco had to say about cult movies in his 1984 essay “ ‘Casablanca’: Cult Movies and Intertextual Collage.” “What are the requirements for transforming a book or movie into a cult object?” Mr. Eco asked. “The work must be loved, obviously, but this is not enough. It must provide a completely furnished world so that its fans can quote characters and episodes as if they were aspects of the fan’s private sectarian world, a w...