Tag: Literary Theory

Writing the Long Way AroundLeave a comment

I think we’ve been seeing too much of each other / It’s not me, it’s you

Writing The Long Way Around

In his essay ‘What is an Author?’ Michael Foucault posits that the text always points to the figure of the author who as creator, both precedes and lurks outside the text. All well and good – especially if you are a grammarian detective.  But how can the text point to the author online when the reader can watch the writer in flagrante ? Matt Bell has recently finished a week-long writing experiment where he wrote and edited a story live online. Self anointed as the literary Jack Bauer, he took one paragraph, a piece of debris left over from a … Continue reading I think we’ve been seeing too much of each other / It’s not me, it’s you

Writing the Long Way AroundLeave a comment

Postcards from an Existential Lady

Writing The Long Way Around

I once knew a lady who ran a very successful private gentleman’s club.  It was terribly exclusive and the only advertising was a series of artful postcards displayed in selected telephone boxes around London. All other business was a result of very good word of mouth. The lady was among many, many things responsible for introducing me to Jean Paul Sartre. I had no idea what she was talking about then and Sartre remains at arm’s length from my periphery now, but in my defence it is quite difficult to discuss existentialism when one of you is wearing a bad wig and … Continue reading Postcards from an Existential Lady

Writing the Long Way AroundLeave a comment

Research and Evil Dolls

Writing The Long Way Around

Really, I ought to be grateful for the past 36 hours of rain as it has made it almost impossible for the snow to lie. Last week I inadvertently watched the movie The Day After Tomorrow and am now terrified when I see large blocks of cloud forming. Living in the UK it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between large blocks of cloud heralding catastrophic shifts in weather conditions and a new ice age, and plain old large blocks of cloud. Although I am leaving it until tomorrow to be unspeakably fatal, I achieved a few things today which, really … Continue reading Research and Evil Dolls

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Speech vs. Writing

Writing The Long Way Around

It’s odd sometimes what you wake up thinking about. Take this morning for example. My head is all a whirl with Plato’s Phaedrus and Derrida’s deconstruction of Phaedrus to show that Plato the old sock, argued against himself when he insisted that writing is secondary and lesser to speech. Please don’t expect quotes at this time, or any further exploratory blurb about Derrida. It is not quite 9am and I haven’t even sipped my coffee yet and to be honest, at this stage, I would only be regurgitating facts rather than imparting real knowledge. The whole speech/writing thing came up … Continue reading Speech vs. Writing