THE LAST BALCONY (www.nemonymous.com)

Author as Arbiter

posted Thursday, 14 January 2010



Regarding an author being the best arbiter of his own work:

POINT ACCEPTED BY ALL OF US: The writer and his writing are inseparable at point of creation or crystallisation of that writing in a public arena.


DEBATEABLE POINT:
Text A by Writer X.

A has been left in the public arena by X as a separate thing, and the reader gives X the respect due to him by reading it for what it is without recourse to anything that was decided not to be part of A.

X, when writing A, had, presumably, conscious, sub-conscious, unconscious and/or self-deceptive intentions as well as possible misinterpretatons of self in connection with X and his own intentions.

In other words, A is solidly there on the page, left in that state by X (that's what it means by being WRITTEN BY X). A is the only definite thing.

Meanwhile, views of A and of himself by X -- and information available to the readers about X's life and thinking -- are all arguable and thus not definite.




I feel the writer deserves this respect from his audience, i.e. to read his work as he left it to be read.


Continuation of this debate here: http://www.knibbworld.com/campbell-cgi/discus/show.cgi?tpc=1&post=44998#POST44998