What is my problem! I mean really. It seems so simple to write down your opinions and thoughts. Why is keeping up with this assignment a problem or rather a delayed reaction on my part. It should be perfectly easy to contribute a stream of my consciousness to the web. Is it the aspect of being assessed? No, I don’t believe it is, being in the system of higher education for as long as I have been…. Well there is just no problem in that department.
Is it possibly my awkwardness with the technology that makes me so incapable of conforming to the current Internet standard? I don’t feel incapable of completing this assignment but there is something awkward of even the most detached discussion through blogging. Ultimately the reader is connected directly to the writer. There is opportunity for discussion and reaction. It can be guaranteed to reach the author. This is unprecedented with print. True one could always write a letter to the editor but in the arrogance of the journalism room this would be dismissed. I mean there will be plenty of people who read your paper even if one does not. But the blogging system is so different. It is about the connection you make with your reader. The reader, more then ever, is the important aspect of this connection. And for the first time since Barthes declared the writer to be dead the technology has shown us how that can be turned on its head.
The idea that Barthes gives basically (and I mean basically) empowers the reader and takes away some of the preconceived ideas of the power of meaning from the author. This technology, however, reinstates that power to some level, as communication between the reader and the author becomes more frequent and each takes on the other’s role.
Is it possibly my awkwardness with the technology that makes me so incapable of conforming to the current Internet standard? I don’t feel incapable of completing this assignment but there is something awkward of even the most detached discussion through blogging. Ultimately the reader is connected directly to the writer. There is opportunity for discussion and reaction. It can be guaranteed to reach the author. This is unprecedented with print. True one could always write a letter to the editor but in the arrogance of the journalism room this would be dismissed. I mean there will be plenty of people who read your paper even if one does not. But the blogging system is so different. It is about the connection you make with your reader. The reader, more then ever, is the important aspect of this connection. And for the first time since Barthes declared the writer to be dead the technology has shown us how that can be turned on its head.
The idea that Barthes gives basically (and I mean basically) empowers the reader and takes away some of the preconceived ideas of the power of meaning from the author. This technology, however, reinstates that power to some level, as communication between the reader and the author becomes more frequent and each takes on the other’s role.
It is a complex idea and a long-winded way to state my struggle with this form of self-expression. I guess I’m old fashioned. I believe conversation and interaction should be on a face-to-face level. Here is a beautiful video to show just why. I think at the end of it you’d have to agree that understanding and reading is part intuition and visual contact to the author of the idea is key. VIDEO
As I said. Maybe not provocative, but hopefully thought provoking.
As I said. Maybe not provocative, but hopefully thought provoking.
yes, sometimes i feel like im talking to a brick wall too. it helps when people comment, you get a feel of where your readers are coming from, what their take is on things, and this can help it feel more like a dialogue. but its your space.. you can just say whatever is on your mind. pretend no one will read it if this helps!
ReplyDeleteInteresting thoughts on the death of the author. I’d never thought of the concept in relation to the internet, only in relation to more traditional works like novels. Writers and readers are really merging into one in a more obvious way.
ReplyDeleteI agree it is a bit strange to get instant feedback on your writing. It does weird me out a bit too, sometimes, and it does force you to write with your audience in mind. But at the same time, isn’t it kind of exciting?
Yes, I agree that face-to-face conversations are often more ‘organic’ than online ones. But they aren’t mutually exclusive, and the online text-based medium means wider dissemmination and the chance for people to give you really in-depth feedback. Rather than the ‘I love your books. You’re awesome’ that I might be able to splutter out at one of my favourite authors should I ever meet them, this medium offers the chance for considered, extended responses to written works, instantaneously. Here the reader becomes a writer, and the original writer becomes the reader, which relates back to the earlier point.
Of course, this gives people the chance to be really long-winded and rambly. Like me in this comment. Is this a good thing? Sometimes. You, as the writer/reader, decide.