Dmitry Essering. Authorship real and virtual

Authorship real and virtual
Dmitry Essering

Publication date: January 17, 2000
Do not multiply entities unnecessarily!
William of Ockham

Model for assembly

Since mid-century, considerable intellectual resources have been devoted to demystifying the figure of the author-author.

But, despite the efforts of French intellectuals, coupled with international glossies, the author’s persona shows itself to be extremely tenacious and unsinkable. Being in the chains of language, we say: the author of detective novels Vasya Ivanov...

Let's try to carry out anatomical work, to imagine from what components the figure of the unsinkable (to us contemporary) author is assembled.

a) The author is archaic-traditional evidence. Each Text has an Author (Vasya Ivanov, author of "The Red Pistol", not a compiler/plagiarist etc). We can reflect on the archeology-genealogy of this evidence. (Not now).

(Conclusion: component a) - cultural atavism.)

b) Author - professional affiliation (Vasya Ivanov, writer). Now the author - not because he wants to create the universe, itches in his chest or other part of the body, but because - his impressive intellect does not allow him to become a steelmaker, miner or realtor, and his stomach, which stubbornly demands filling (at least three times a day).

c) The author is a potential trademark, label (“Vasya Ivanov”, author of the bestseller “The Red Gun”).

(The author is an exceptional demiurge, but he would have produced another volume with joy, had he learned that even the native Papuans have the opportunity to cling to the artifacts of his genius. The author, a non-realtor, is ready to plunge the Internet into oblivion for the virtualization of what has been gained / the virtualization of (potentially) earned Or was there a competent promotion campaign?)

d) The author is an agent of the inexorable legal and economic space (Vasya Petrov, taxable royalty recipient).

(Conclusion: component d) - normative-compulsory, restraining creative efforts.)

e) Author-demiurge (Vasya Ivanov, an original and original Russian writer. A nugget. A native of the outback, a native of the village of Srednie Mymriki). Component e) is rarely represented in polite society. However, for the moral support of individual authors, it is extremely important - quietly, under the pillow.

(Conclusion: component d) - intellectual atavism.)

f) The author is the one whose product was presented to the eyes of non-authors, put on the shelves and, possibly, purchased by buyers - see components b) and c) (Vasya Ivanov, author of The Red Pistol, published by the Old Cultural Space) . Thanks to point b) we also have the opportunity to transform from gray non-authors into rich authors.

(Conclusion: component e) - selection, external to the author.)

In addition, component e) also has a metaphysical component. In the metaphysical sense (with admixtures of psychoanalysis), the author generally appears only thanks to a living, indestructible connection with the reader (of a published novel - with the buyer). The reader/buyer is a Lacanian mirror, a significant Other.

Pelevi's

Now let us remember that humanity has the pleasure of entering a fresh millennium without ever leaving the notorious consumer society. Consumerism is thriving (see the banner below, it clearly wants to sell you something)! We move on to the accompaniment of the ubiquitous slogans.

So, keeping in mind the totality of the banner situation, we conclude that art is not for the sake of art, but for the sake of money (the statement is not axiomatic). Therefore, component c) must dominate in the author’s nature.

The author, a humble worker, is a normal unit of the sociocultural mechanism designed to quench the thirst of the literati/satisfy the thirst of the author. The author, who does not aspire to the lucrative chair of the demiurge, is content with the place of an ordinary commodity producer. From this point of view, there is no difference between the Levi's label and the Pelevin label - both the first and the second produce high-quality products (not super, but really high-quality). The buyer - an extremely predictable subject - is usually satisfied with high-quality products, and therefore continues to purchase them.

And Levi's is bought (especially by local residents) because it's Levi's. Because it’s cool (they say) and the advertising is good. But our Pelevin is not lagging behind. He talentedly arranges his authorship with the right amount of enigmatism, appears on the screens on time, and is generally literate and well done. (Here, perhaps, he has little pseudonymality.

But there is Mr. “Akunin” who took this mistake into account!

There is "Marinina".)

By the way, let us draw the attention of the perspicacious reader to some seemingly unity of such two formally different product names as book and glossy. The savvy reader reacts to the enchanting impulse: Vasya Ivanov (author of "The Red Gun"!), Playboy and - with liveliness he attacks the presented product. Naturally, the reader doesn’t care about Vasya Ivanov or the Playboy authors (of which there are also some). Of course, both Vasya and the authors are aware of this. And if not the shifty Playboy, then the youth “Ptyuch” respected Occam and easily canceled the authorship on its pages (the authors remained on the information page). And no one except the authors noticed the revolution. Readers scroll through, layout designers are happy (one less misfortune).

(The observant reader has the right to point out the significant component d). The guys from the tax police don't like hoaxes. The state must not be deceived! Indeed, component d) does not contribute to phantasmatic separation. Therefore it is normative and compulsory.)

The components schematically outlined above are the authorship of the “real”. Is “real” authorship identical to “virtual” one?

Transformer

In order.

Let's start with virtualization, working with the sharp "razor" of the British, components a) and e) as (see above) atavisms that have no place in the high-tech space.

Let us now consider component e). The space of the vast Motherland is inhabited by a huge number of letter-folders who are not authors (represented by such and such publishing houses). They come to the arbiters of fate, the editors and publishers, and they answer with a nasty grin: not our format, the reader will not be interested, the buyer will not buy, and so on. and so on. phrases that frustrate pen workers. Not every hard worker will decide to finish publishing with his own savings (you don’t want to “get” money). So the worker would have remained a worker if, of course, the Internet had not appeared. For a small hosting fee (or, if possible, for free), we upload our works to the Internet and formally become authors. But just formally: piles of Internet graphomania are significantly devaluing the cost of component e) - there are too many authors. The author is identical to the publisher - no selection, no censorship (online magazines and newspapers are a different matter).

(Simplicity, ease and accessibility of virtual publication also eliminates component b). Both a realtor and a miner can nurture home pages during leisure hours. Sketching texts without any pretense of professionalism, even if they are exposed to general beating. (Hobby.))

The metaphysical depths of component e) also disappear. Whether the online publisher will have browsers is not known with certainty. You can do without retrograde metaphysics: there is a product - someday a buyer will appear (?).

So, component e) does not hinder the flight of creative inspiration; the absence of boring control allows you to create for your own pleasure (oriented towards the best examples).

Component d) also fades into virtual oblivion. “Real” norms and regulations in virtual space (as practice shows) are not only shamelessly violated and ignored, not only do they not and cannot act, they should not act at all! But there are no virtual ones yet. The caring state mercifully does not pay attention to the virtual author. This allows the latter not to be distracted by regulatory details and to devote himself entirely to the process.

What remains is component c), the “really” dominant one (lovingly described by us).

If we lower the virtual value of component c), the virtual author will finally wilt and turn into a phantasmatic mirage, absolutely intelligible. Therefore, we will increase the virtual cost of component c) and declare: yes, the label component is the most important in becoming a virtual author!

Label - (see above) has a sonorous name, imagination for the production of quality products and the same for promoting products. Knows how, why, where and what for, taking the grunt work out of the equation. (Levi's jeans are sewn, naturally, in the workshops of the Chinese province of Guangzhou - but why inform the buyer about this?) The label, like the virtual author (aka the label) is a phenomenon of pure creativity, unconstrained (constraining - see above, outside the brackets) .

(On the Russian-language Network, you can, for example, name such labels as “Kuritsyn” (to a lesser extent) and “Fry” (to a greater extent). Especially monstrous is “Fry”, which is simply a Label (and no one knows anything about the rest). But also "K" and "F" were successfully converted into the Network from "reality". Authentic network labels are in short supply.)

What is the label production technology? We suggest the following points:

• you need to stock up on a sonorous name (like “Fry”);
• minimize unnecessary information (such as Vasya Ivanov, a native of Middle Mymriki), accordingly, maximize the mystical element;
• maximize the volume of objectified (in creative products) energy;
• there must be a fundamental reluctance to follow the established “real” creative foundations (such as writing detective novels about steep showdowns in the village of Srednie Mymriki, following the real situation) (why follow them?);
• the desire to use and use network advantages - tightness, transparency, democracy, omnipresence, technical bells and whistles, etc.

PS Label promotion makes life richer and more unexpected.