{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2038",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
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  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 2038,
    "subject": "Foucault",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1999-12-17T12:09:39+00:00",
    "last": "1999-12-17T12:09:39+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0638@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Jonathan Laidlow",
        "address": "laidlojm at hhs.bham.ac.uk"
      },
      "date": "1999-12-17T12:09:39+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Foucault",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Jeremy also wrote:\n\"So what F. challenges is not the author as individual who writes, but author as unified \nidea. We should be looking at the system of dispersion of discourse, its discontinuities, \nhow it ebbs and flows together. You already provided a good summary of the author-\nfunction (must cut and paste into myown notes!).\"\nPrecisely - the author, as well as being a physcial being who writes, is also a constructed \nfeature of discourse, which works on some levels to control the reception of that \ndiscourse - hence my suggestion of the very different ways we might read Kilgore Trout's \n'BotNS'. Your quote from Foucault looked excellent - I've been searching for more \ndiscussion of the Author Function, is it readily available in a collection? I'd be grateful if \nyou'd send me more details privately (vacation email to: ultan01 at yahoo.co.uk)\nOn Materiality of the book Jeremy said:\n\"Well the only thing I can think of is how certain texts might be seen to bevalorised by \nreceiving expensive bindings and illustration plates.\"\nIts a bit more than that in my own research - stems from the belief that rather than read \nworks as the genius outpourings of a solitary figure we should recognise the influence and \nimportance of editors, publishers, artists, type-setters and so forth in the process of \nproduction. Sterne is an interesting figure because, like Blake but on a commercial level, \nhe chose to keep tight control over the appearance of his books - choosing the format \n(octavo), layout, and special features (wobbly lines, black pages, use of footnotes \nmerging with the main text). One Sf example might be Alfred Bester's 'Stars my \nDestination' (or is it the Demolished Man) which plays with concrete poetry later on, and \nwas butchered by editors at one point. Now happily restored. The point is that meaning \ndoes not just come from one source - whether that be the author's stated purpose, or the \nlinguistic units on the page.\nThe argument continues in the debate in the 80s over the 'correct' edition of Joyce's \nUlysses, which started from the principle that Joyce's aims had been misrepresented in \nthe original published edition because of editorial interference. A 'corrected' text duly \nappeared. This was then lambasted by a scholar who argued that Joyce had been \nworking with the publishers to insert jokes and other references in the published edition. I \nforget the exact details, but one of them was the appearance of a number in the text that \ncorresponded to the page that it appeared on.\n\n\" On theother hand, there is a more underground literature (not, after F., theVictorian \nagain!) which might \"mask\" its interior (anyone read the SixteenPleasures?). This was \nClute's idea in that Salon piece I guess. You have toknow the \"code\" to access the \nmaterial, and there is a certain jargon,look, illustration type, etc that signals to the \ncognoscenti. So there is a\"discourse\" to the appearance of the book which can exclude \nor filteraccess. Well, maybe not! You'll have to tell us more about your work...\"\n\nI seem to remember an argument that Oscar Wilde's plays, while performed in the \nmainstream London theatres, also contained lots of jokes which old made sense to the \nturn of the century London gay culture. As these were deliberately designed not to be \nunderstood by the 'ordinary' audience, there was some debate about whether these \nsections should be spelt out in modern editions of the plays, or left for the reader to take \nor leave.\n\nRight, I'm finishing work now until the new year. I should have sporadic access to my \nUni account via the web and will keep checking the Urth and Whorl lists. Should any of \nyou like to contact me, it would be best to use my yahoo email account, \nultan01 at yahoo.co.uk\n\nMerry Christmas/Happy Holidays and have a fantastic New Year if I don't get back to \nthe list.\n\nJonathan\nVisit Ultan's Library - A Gene Wolfe web resource\nhttp://members.tripod.co.uk/laidlow/index.htm\nJonathan Laidlow\nUniversity of Birmingham, UK"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}