#interactivefiction2011

"I believe that all the truly revolutionary theatrical groups should

transfer to the people the means of production in the theatre so

that the people themselves may utilise them. The theatre is a

weapon, and it is the people who should wield it." 98

"A royal crown may symbolise power, but a

symbol only functions as such if its meaning is shared. For some a

royal crown may produce a strong impact and yet be meaningless

for others." 101

"The bodies of both become alienated in accordance with

their respective types of work...The combination of roles that a person must perform

imposes on him a ‘mask’ of behaviour. This is why those who

perform the same roles end up resembling each other: artists,

soldiers, clergymen, teachers, workers, peasants, landlords,

decadent noblemen, etc." 104

-Boal

1. Aside from the obvious, what is the difference between the reader and the author of a piece of work?

2. Why in classical criticism is the reader not a concern for the criticism? Should they be?

Why is it important to know who the teller of a story is, why does one need to know - in depth - the motivations and knowledge behind the narrator?  Surely, having some information about the narrator will lend itself to help the reader understand the story that bit more, but beyond that shallow bit is there much depth to it?

Barthes goes on to say that the author is "never more than the man that writes."  This directly contradicts his praise of Proust, who wrote himself as the narrator as well as the author. 

"I have emphasized the fact that every integral experience moves toward a close, an ending, since it ceases only when the energies active in it have done their proper work."

-Dewey, "Art as Experience"

Video:

Sartre

After reading Sartre's Why Write? I was reminded of a book I've taken the time to read through many times, the first being when I was about 16 years old: Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. The bit of media I've chosen is an audio reading of one of the initial chapters of the writing, paired with appropriate imagery. To say this book changed my life would be an understatement. Our education system, formal and systematic, leaves little room for interpretation, and thus little room for association. We learn of the history of the first civilizations, when Columbus sailed into the America's, how the apple fell from the tree and thus gravity was discovered. Placing all of these events on some sort of cosmic timeline that begs of them all to be interrelated is not only lacking encouragement, but also seems too grand an undertaking for any teacher to pursue. Many of us grow up without ever drawing these lines, and thus our world is never truly connected. It is a series of very fortunate events that have brought us to where we are, and nothing more.

"the literary object is a peculiar top which exists only in movement. To make it come into view a concrete act called reading is necessary, and it lasts only as long as this act can last."

-Sartre