Authors and Books

This review of  The Writer's Voice and The Telescope in the Parlor raises so many provocative points about writing and authors that I wish the review had been alotted more space. As it is, these interesting points are tantalizingly raised, but not really discussed to any depth.

Many of the points center around the author's relationship to the text. Here's one:

But whereas McConkey maintains that it is knowledge of the author, her memory and experience, that informs the reading of the text, Alvarez makes the fervent argument that it is just this "cult of personality" that is the downfall of writers and readers today. What McConkey sees as necessary to the interpretation of text, Alvarez sees as a cultural shift from art to marketing, where "by concentrating on [authors] and their unspeakable lives, you conveniently sidestep the effects of their art."  For example, one didn't read Ginsberg's poetry, he argues, but rather went to see Ginsberg read his poetry. . . .

Despite his spurning of the cult of personality, Alvarez sees that "the sin of the New Critics was [treating] writers as second-class citizens whose function was merely to provide the raw material that the critic then dignified with meaning and relevance."  McConkey, likewise, believes it "impossible to interpret any text as a thing-in-itself, a work separate from the knowledge we bring to it through previous readings or anything else we carry in memory."

These remarks are interesting in light of Cynthia Ozick's whirlwind account of her experiences on an author tour (in this week's NYTBR). The piece is tongue-in-cheek and more than a little bitter, complete with talkshow hosts who openly admit they didn't read more than 10 pages and groups of fickle, disinterested readers.

It seems that with the rise of the book tour and the proliferation of TV, radio, and print book clubs, New Criticism's distaste for reading the author along with the text is becoming an eroded concept.  In order to maximize sales, information about authors (and the authors themselves) is increasingly shoved in the reader's face; bathed in so much information, it's difficult not to think authors when reading their books.

I'm not of the opinion that knowledge of an author is necessary to a reading of a book, but I do beleive that it's  much more difficult now to read a book without knowing something of the author and having that information seep into a reading of the book. Furthermore, this is a trend that isn't likely to reverse any time soon.

Comments

[Bill]

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