I quite agree about the Death of the Author, Ali. I'm an admirer of Barthes,
but he got that very wrong. The author goes to festivals and is interviewed
in all the papers about his/her private life and views on the state of the
world. The text hardly gets a look in. The latest cause celebre in Britain
is a group of middle-aged authors who've got together to complain about the
popstar status of certain very young very goodlooking new novelists, saying
isn't it time we judged books on the quality of the writing rather than the
attractiveness of the authors?

Best wishes

Matthew
-----Original Message-----
From: ALI ALIZADEH <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 28 March 2001 03:39
Subject: Re: STIMULUS: THE READER


>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
>