-----Original Message-----
From: cris cheek <[log in to unmask]>
To: "british-poets >" <"british-poets" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Friday, January 14, 2000 01:23
Subject: new media and reading alou
chris cheek writes:
>But in response to your post I'd have to ask a key question, who are you
>writing for? It should be considered at every moment of assemblage. Yes,
>even word by word. Then the issue about composing with readers in mind
using
>new media will be an integral part of your writing practice. And that's how
>it should be. Anything less will sell the work short.
>
>
I can't agree with this chris. No one can write with any real awareness of
who is going to read/listen to your work unless one happens to be some kind
of omniscient and very clever god/ess. It's hard enough arguing with
your own mind let alone the multi-varied minds of others. No one could ever
write a word under such conditions unless we're talking very generally eg
writing for children or commercial generic pre-writtens eg Mill &Boon
romance. Surely the question is WHAT we are writing for. How words
occupy their spatial dimensions and formal dictates. A radio play is not a
lyric poem is not a live art performance etc. I have written poems that on
the page skitter in wild word breaks and lexical puns that are totally lost
when read out loud...so I either leave them page-bound or find a vocal
equivalent. But to write for 'who' is surely a crowd pleasing
impossibility and that wouldn't be too bad if there were crowds but there
ain't. First and foremost you can only write for yourself and hope against
hope that the writing will somewhere find a few friends and a little home.
If not,
not.
Geraldine
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|