Art for Art’s Sake and Understanding Point of View

by executive editor, lily rockefeller

In Poetry Editor Katherine Frain’s latest blog post (a must-read), she reminds us that not even writers, masters of making things up, can properly speak in the voice of another person. She recalls her own experience, writing how one character reacted to another’s appearance—then realized he was supposed to be blind. She acknowledges there is no way she could fully imagine the experience of being blind, and thus cannot use that voice.

Katherine’s post was inspiring and beautifully written. It got me thinking, eager to explore more. After all, what does it mean for writing if this idea is valid?

Whose point of view can we take? The differences between us split infinitely; this is even one of the inspirations for the founding of Blueshift. As a white woman, I accept I cannot understand the experience of a black woman—the oppression, the fear, the weight of history against me. If I cannot take her voice, then surely I can speak in the voice of another white woman? What if she is terribly poor and lives in the projects, unlike me? Is that not another instance of problematic misrepresentation? What if she is also lucky enough to be educated and raised in a nice city neighborhood—but her parents are divorced, unlike mine? No matter how similar to me my narrator becomes, there will always be a difference between us that cannot be bridged. Then can we accurately write anything that isn’t simply an autobiography?

A counterpoint to Katherine’s article can be found in Roland Barthes’ Death of the Author. In this essay, Barthes suggests that the work of an Author is simply a collection of a thousand influences, a thousand “citations,” that have affected the Author throughout her life. Thus, no work is original, but simply a grouping of different parts of culture and history. Barthes asserts the Author’s point of view does not matter, but rather most important is how the Reader interprets the writing.

My thinking is this: the work of any author is unoriginal, but wholly unique. It is only this author that certain influences have affected. As a white woman, I am unaffected by racism (as far as anyone in our society can be “unaffected” by racism, since we are all brought low by any discrimination) but am influenced by the different treatment I experience due to my gender. Only a certain author can write a certain story, due to the unique way life affects them, the unique collection of “citations” in their work. I do not think that any writer is capable of seeing from any viewpoint. However, this does not signal the end of writing. As Katherine also touches on, the best we can do is our research. To maintain a respectful understanding of another person’s life and listen to what they say. To try to fairly represent them in our work, devoid of oppression or condescension but simply trying to get at the truth.

This is hardly a groundbreaking idea. And yet, when we forget what privileges we are allowed, we stray dangerously close to misrepresenting and damaging another group, and become unworthy of wielding the power we as writers hold.

#lilyrockefeller #misc