{"id":25910,"date":"2014-06-12T06:30:28","date_gmt":"2014-06-11T18:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=25910"},"modified":"2014-06-10T20:50:28","modified_gmt":"2014-06-10T08:50:28","slug":"which-speaks-book-or-author","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2014\/06\/12\/which-speaks-book-or-author\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Speaks, Book Or Author?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On January 20th (2014), I posted on “The Tao Of Writing: ‘The Book That Can be Spoken Of Is Not The Book’.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The post was an update on writing progress for Daughter Of Blood<\/em>, The Wall Of Night Book Three<\/strong>, but in it I wrote, amongst other things, that:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>“…the quote in the title…derives from Lao Tzu\u2019s <\/em>Tao Te Ching<\/strong>. I have paraphrased the opening line, which (in my edition) reads:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Way that can be spoken of is not the Way.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

One interpretation of this is that the Tao or Way that can be spoken of or described is not the true Tao, which by implication can only be directly experienced.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The reason I\u2019ve titled this post \u201cThe Tao Of Writing: \u2018The Book That Can Be Spoken Of Is Not the Book\u2019\u2026\u201d\u00a0 is because I feel that the spirit of the <\/em>Tao Te Ching<\/strong> quote is directly applicable to writing\u2014that until the book is done and can be directly experienced by readers, then there is little of merit to talk about…”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The part that I have continued to mull over in the intervening period is:<\/p>\n

“…until the book is done and can be directly experienced by readers…”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I have also posted recently on the relationship between online interaction and writing books<\/a> (in my case, novels.) In that case, I felt that “immersion in the one <\/em>(social media) may actively work against one\u2019s ability to deliver in the other <\/em>(book-length stories.)“<\/em><\/p>\n

I also observed that the “conundrum for the modern author though, is how that will work out in a contemporary world where the received wisdom is that it is vital, in order to succeed, for the writer to be active on social media.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Lots of “terribly important” (or far more likely, unimportant! ;-)) thoughts indeed! Now, here’s one more.<\/p>\n

Part of the drive for authors to be on social media is so she\/he may either directly or indirectly tout her\/his wares by talking about the book de jour, the writing process and the writing life. I know many readers are genuinely interested in these sort of conversations, too, as are other writers. Increasingly though, the question that has been dogging me is whether an author “should” speak about the book, or rather leave the book to speak for itself, through the direct, interactive experience we call reading.<\/p>\n

Sure, as the author I can post or talk about my intentions and aspirations when I began telling the story. But the thing about a book-length work is that it’s multi-layered and complex. Books also evolve and grow through the telling, and the stories they relate are dynamic and contextual. So no matter my intention or aspiration as author when I begin my storytelling, it may well be that other threads and themes work their way in as I write. Some of them may even be so subtle or well camouflaged\u00a0 that I may not consciously detect them, whereas a reader may…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So the moment I say I have written a book and it’s about this or about that, other than at the most broadbrush level (e.g. that “Thornspell<\/em><\/strong> is a fairytale retelling of Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of the prince”), then I am already potentially closing off options for those readers who set store by the author’s view.<\/p>\n

And what if a reader reads the book and finds something in it that is deep and rich and satisfying for them, but does not accord with what the author has said that the book is about? Does that make the reader wrong about her\/his reading experience? Or the author wrong about her\/his book? Is it possible, in fact, that both can be entirely right — because ultimately it is the book that speaks and books are indeed nuanced (multi-layered, complex, dynamic and contextual.)<\/p>\n

The more I reflect, the more I am personally convinced that it is the book and only the book that should speak, and the author should be, if not invisible, at least largely inaudible on the subject of “the book.” In that sense I come back to the wonderful AS Byatt words that I have quoted here before:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>“Think of this \u2013 that the writer wrote alone, and the reader read alone, and they were alone with each other.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This conversation, however, only occurs through the median of the book…<\/p>\n

When it comes to the author speaking, I feel there’s a little more scope for output on writing process and the writing life (both of which are areas this post may be said to touch on), topics that I may return to later.<\/p>\n

For today though, I’m interested in putting the thesis out there as to whether it is the book that should speak, or the author — and definitely in hearing your thoughts as readers and\/or writers yourselves, should you wish to share them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On January 20th (2014), I posted on “The Tao Of Writing: ‘The Book That Can be Spoken Of Is Not The Book’.\u201d The post was an update on writing progress for Daughter Of Blood, The Wall Of Night Book Three, but in it I wrote, amongst other things, that: “…the quote in the title…derives from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-my-books","category-about-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25910"}],"version-history":[{"count":48,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26017,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25910\/revisions\/26017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}