The main issue with readers, as far as me as a writer is concerned, is the
prejudiced interpretations which a bunch of academic hicks like to refer to
as 'birth of the reader'. Most people who haven't read Barthes past the 'death of
the author' essay (something like 85 percent of the academics and book-reviwers),
think this theoretical situation is inevitable, untouchable and even healthy - in so
far as, apparently, it dismantles the ego of the dominant paradigm. A noble thought,
but one which has been contradicted by the cult of personality of the writers of pop
music 'lyrics', novels, journalism, TV and celebrity poets like Ginsgerg.

The thing is, and I say this after having studied Barthes' brilliant 'Mythologies',
the whole idea that the reader is more important than the writer is a market-
strategy of its own, a contemporary plot deviced to perpetuate a myth; the myth
of 'freedom of choice' in 'democracy'. Think about it: an ad on TV is always about
what a product can do for YOU and doesn't say/show overtly the producers behind the
product. Death of the Producer? hardly, seeing as the ad and the financial benefits
from the televised images go straight to the producers. So really what an add is
saying, through its depiction of readers - happy consumers eating McDonalds etc -is
showing the power of the authors - the glowing McDonalds logo in the background- so
the authors aren't dead at all, they're just hiding behind a mask of false
sincerity. This supposed 'post-modern' condition is a myth. one which has been
perpetuated by western academia for reasons which I won't go into now.

Furhter more, there is a major problem with academics who think the readers are
entitled to their subjective readings whatever they might be. I'm personally fed up
with pseudo feminists who call my poems sexist. Being from Moslem background and
never hiding my accent, I sense a disturbing anxiety when some people call my work
sexist. It is a sad reality of western imperialism that Islam/oriental has been
equated with sexism. A lot of my readers (especially in QLD) were racist; I have
hard evidence on that one. So why do I have to suffer from the short-comings of
their brains? Why should any remotely sane writer give a toss about the readers who
think British Empire was god's gift to humanity?

Roland Barthes didn't say we should worry about the readers. He exposed one of the
many myths of the capitalist culture when he said the author is dead. Birth of the
reader? Exploitation of the readers' prejudices for the sake of the capital, more
like it.

Ali Alizadeh



---- Original Message ----
From: [log in to unmask]
Date: Wed 3/28/01 11:12
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: STIMULUS: THE READER

Dear Anthony

But New York City is not small and I had a similar experience, and it
similarly amazed and embarrassed me. I was on the train, traveling to Ohio,
and about to get out a book to read when I glanced at the woman sitting next
to me quietly reading. Astonishingly, the book she was reading was
Entropisms, my book of prose poems that had just come out. I could hardly
see the face of the reading woman. I was too shocked, delighted, and yet
afraid to look again at my book, no longer mine, out in the world - and I
face to face with it, the stranger.

Harriet Zinnes