Em ơi!#330: Of Writerly Texts

Lit crit jokes!  Awesome!I was going to color this a little more, but then I couldn’t find my markers and I got caught up in some little crises (related to the drafts of two papers which were/are due this past week), and I decided to just go with it.

In case you were curious, this is what Barthes says about writerly texts:

There may be nothing to say about writerly texts.  First of all, where can we find them?  Certainly not in reading…: the writerly text is not a thing, we would have a hard time finding it in a bookstore.  Further, its model being a productive (and no longer a representative) one, it demolishes any criticism which, once produced, would mix with is: to rewrite the writerly text would consist only in disseminating it, in dispersing it within the field of infinite difference.  The writerly text is a perpetual present, upon which no consequent language…can be superimposed; the writerly text is ourselves writing, before the infinite play of the world (the world as function) is traversed, intersected, stopped, plasticized by some singular system…which reduces the plurality of entrances, the opening of networks, the infinity of languages.  The writerly is the novelistic without the novel…

(Barthes, Roland.  From S/Z: An Essay.  New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1974. 3-5.)  Very pretty, but kind of incomprehensible, huh?  When I asked, I was told that he meant “highbrow texts,” but I don’t think that’s right–hence my answer about “tweets.”  However if anyone has a good explanation I’m willing to listen.

This comic is filed under: PQ94 .L86 2010, for French literature–Literary history and criticism–Criticism–By period–20th century–Treatises.  Theory.  History.

Next week I’ll be funnier.

Em ơi! #329: Pronounced “Lup*ton Me*trish”

Fuck you, Chase.  I didn't want the frequent flyer miles anyway.

This isn’t the first time this whole name thing has come up.  See also #307 and #294.

To say I have been somewhat conflicted on this issue is an understatement.  After way too much discussion B and I agreed that “Lupton Metrish,” with no hyphen (B doesn’t like hyphens, I don’t know why) would be a good way to style myself.  Well, that makes it sound like he had a huge say in it.  More like I said, “I’m changing my last name to this” and he said, “As long as you’re happy.”

I’m tempted to call Chase’s inability to get my name correct a form of racism — in many Spanish speaking countries, it’s normal to use two unhyphenated surnames.  Check out Gabriel Garica Marquez or Mario Vargas Llosa.  Even if Chase didn’t operate internationally (in fact, it’s part of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and operates in 60 countries), there are doubtlessly immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries in the US who want to maintain their names in the correct form on their VISA cards.  Anyway if it’s not out-and-out racism, it’s certainly obnoxious.

Fun Fact: Apparently Mario Vargas Llosa a) wrote his doctoral thesis on Garcia Marquez and b) later punched him in the face.  No one knows why.

By the way, if you were wondering where to find my second-ever published short story, wonder no more.  Just click to this link at GUD magazine and buy it for $0.50 (or get the whole issue in a nice PDF for $3.50).  It is totally worthwhile.

File this comic under: KF521.L8 2010a

Em ơi!#328: Metacomical

This is why I don't draw feet.I had originally written that I was only seven inches shorter than Bryan (he is six feet even, I am 5′ 3″).  That is clearly wishful thinking.  Luckily (?) he caught it before we went to print (or, before I went to school and scanned this).

I’ll file this comic under BF697.5.S43 L86 2010 for Psychology—Differential psychology.  Individuality.  Self—Special aspects, A-Z—Self-perception.   Sadly, if LC has a heading for “Napoleon Complex,” I can’t find it.

In other news, I’m back to running.  Don’t tell my PT guy.

I’m kidding (sort of).  I’m just running more than his “build up” plan would want me to be doing…but I am taking it relatively easy.  Considering that I could do more than a half marathon without feeling sore before all this started, I’m pretty surprised when I’m aching after a five miler.  My muscles and lungs are still in shape…my ligaments are evidently now used to biking.  I guess it’s not about what I could do, it’s about focusing on the fact that I am allowed to run and have been doing so pain-free.  But this is pretty hard.