Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Scriptor

It is not that man makes history, but rather that history makes man.
As a corollary, it is writing (language) that makes an author and not vice versa.

To give a text an Author is to impose a limit on that text, to furnish it with a final signified, to close the writing.
- Roland Barthes

































36 comments:

  1. I am so glad to hear from you again. You have your precious furry kid's picture. I do believe that little dog is adorable. I love your black and white pictures.

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  2. A pen is mightier than a sword.

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  3. Barthes has interesting ideas about creators of text. I wonder if they might also apply to creators of art. Nice to see Angelina, the black and white images are exquisite.

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  4. Brilliant collection - of course I am partial to that last shot. :)

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  5. Glad to know that the hurricane was not a strong one. Through reading I learnt a lot. Even now that I am bloging, I learnt about your area, hurricane and the plants people like to grow. Life is indeed a journey. I like to read books that are inspiring. Have a great day!

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  6. Do you have a new head banner or have I just missed it because of my holidays?

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  7. Nice mono. Another great photos!

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  8. Barthes is brilliant. Very mind-boggling, just like your blog. I love it!

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  9. Thought provoking! Glad you are okay!

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  10. Glad Bill left you unharmed. Beautiful photos, especially your sweet Angelina. Have a great day:)

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  11. the dark tones are so perfect...we should put your reading shot next to my cello/chair

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  12. Well, I'm not sure about the comments, but I like the photos very much! You do have a way with a camera! Provocative, as usual!

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  13. The bird shot is my favourite! Scriptor...I like that!

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  14. I wonder if they might also apply to creators of art. Nice to see Angelina, the black and white images are exquisite.
    Domain registration india

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  15. Glad all has gone well for you and your family with the hurricane.
    I'd say these are almost abstract images: I like them very much!

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  16. Words give me clarity, bring me reason, shape. I love words, grew up with them.
    Your photos dont need words, though. The image says it all.

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  17. Lovely photos--I especially loved the hillside statement of bird.

    Apparently when the church was in its heyday, they would have conferences (such as the "death conference" where people reeinacted their own deaqths. People came from all over the world, including some very famous people like Kiano (sp) Reeves, and Ghandi. When they would visit, of course the news media would put it into the local newspaper.

    Clytie is a very knowledgeable person, too--she's insightful, wise and one of my favorite people in the world.

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  18. Beautiful monochrome images.
    I am relieved that Bill passed you by.

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  19. Exceptional photographs... I love the mood you have created and do in all the work...

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  20. So true. So thought-provoking. So beautiful.

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  21. Amazing shots :)))
    (Angelina's photo is so CUTE :)

    I am happy to see a new post!!
    Is Bill gone,
    I hope you have not many damage!!!
    It was in Dutch on TV
    It looks for me very scary,
    Kareltje would go under the bed with me ;)

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  22. I do think of you, and then I fall out of my own loop. I am glad that Bill did not bother you too much.

    Barthe's Camera Lucida and Death Of The Author. Heavy going for me. I think that if you removed me from my words the page would be empty.

    But then again, I can see that the page is often empty when I am finished.

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  23. so many thoughts in response to your texts, like ping pong balls in my brain... such as, some writers make language, like e.e.cummings, some women and men make history, like ghandi - however much you peer into history, you just can't see them coming. of course, that we can't see doesn't mean it doesn't exist - luckily. see, ping pongs...

    is the text appearing or disappearing on the bright page, i can't decide... maybe it's more of a pulse.

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  24. Wonderful photographic series, as always: the first image as suspension of the word in light
    is magnificent!

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  25. Impressive photos. First one - mysterious picture thanks to dark and light tones, illustrating provocative words. And the bird, in romantic style of old b/w photography masters. Respect to your talent

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  26. i think it is easier to close a text than to close an image, but this could be just an impression at this late hour of the night, after a day spent in the ruins of a roman settlement (was i more real there, with my camera, than the ghosts of time wandering there all over the place?)

    and if we think of Barthes explaining what makes the style of a writing, the fact that style comes from darker regions underneath language, is rooted in the pulsing rhythm of the flesh and blood of the person writing - then what happens in the case of a photographer, have you thought of that?

    i see the light erasing the letters in the book, yet giving shape to your hands wrapped by darkness. who is dead and who is alive, i wonder.

    but i suddenly notice the bird, and my thoughts flee.

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  27. I'm not sure I really understand the Barthes quote. I love the photos, there is a stillness and peace about them.

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  28. Made me want take a book and smell the paper and the ink, touch the cover, turn the pages... thank you!

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  29. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  30. I want to address manuela and roxana together, for they both made a similar observation. The book, as well as the "author", is disappearing. This visual metonymy was not intended, yet both of you were kind enough to bring it to prominence. When Barthes speaks of the Death of the Author, he does not mean that authors, old and new, no longer exist. Barthes, instead, forces us to re-evaluate what it means to be an author. An author is not only a person that writes a book - an author is an entanglement of history and codified language. The preeminence of the author as special gatekeeper to a fixed, or closed meaning, is supplanted by the reader/creator. In other word, the reader supplies as much meaning as does the author. As such, manuela and roxana make the point. They share equally in the authorship, in the process of decentralization, where the author is displaced as the center of the universe. Barthes summarizes by stating that "the death of the author is the birth of the reader."

    I agree that it is easier to close a text than to close an image but this too takes some attention. Writing comes from a pool of language, an amalgam (entanglement) of society and history. Barthes’ paradigm shift is precisely that writing no longer comes under the purview of the writer's author-ity. An author does not exist apart from language. It is language that makes the author as opposed to the author “authoring” the writing.

    Photography, as the younger sibling, has been quicker to detach itself from omnipotent authorship than text has. Surrealism is, after all, quite recent and has squashed the monopoly that realistic photos had on interpretation.

    I think that the enemy of the camera is belief in arbitrary standards. Western society, in particular, is fixated on constancy of meaning. What does the photo of a sports car mean? What does the photo of a sports car mean when it is next to a beggar? This is the challenge of writing with the camera. Barthes uses the term Scriptor "whose only power is to combine pre-existing texts in new ways" to replace the ego-centric notion of the author. The camera is thus scriptor, too?

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  31. wonderful images and
    your words inspire contemplation.
    Spirithelpers

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  32. Wonderful images and corresponding quote. I love the light and feeling in the first image!

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  33. Great book photo! And your pooch is precious!

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  34. Just beautiful flowers and photos. I just love your really beautiful dog.

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  35. i keep coming back to this post and the comments, and it's hard to articulate exactly what nags me. but here are some thoughts:

    i wonder at the link between the author as the center or meaning and the powerful - and by now taken as a given - concept of private ownership. everything can be owned, water, knowledge, phrases - and supplanting meaning entirely away from the author, what does that mean for copyright?

    also, moving the center of meaning entirely with the reader, away from the author - it's a move, but a horizontal one. what happened to the muse? the genie? to rilke saying that he felt he was being dictated the odes? like children throwing a tantrum, we have cut off a whole dimension of our world

    also, this talk came to mind, not sure if i shared it before: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

    (warning: TED is addictive...)

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  36. That picture of a bird is interesting. "It's my world" would probably be what it was saying... Cheers, Bangchik.

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Your words are only true if I deem them to be so.