Humanism versus Materialism

If there were a scale from 1-10, 1 being totally humanist (creative genius, author as Author) and 10 being materialistic (no creativity, author as vessel, subject as important), I would fall in about the 4 range.  While I don't believe one singular author exists, I also believe that there is creativity and author subjectivity within the works.  No author exists in a bubble unto himself.  But, no work exists totally without author(s).  In the previous two weeks readings we discussed this spectrum.  Freud used creative writing as an outlet for personal fantasy.  I think there is some truth in that assertion.  Whether the work is the result of total fantasy and creativity or the combination of creativity and history, there is some part of the daydream which the author uses for inspiration.  Take for example, J.R.R. Tolkien.  It is well known that the Lord of the Rings series uses World War II as its historical base.  However, the reason the stories have been so popular for such a long time is the use of the fantastical, creative re-telling of that epic war.  It would seem that Tolkien was haunted by problems with WWII and found his dreamy fantasy as a way to work through some of that tensions.  That ties into the Wollen piece dealing with the auteur as working through issues throughout his body of work.  Whether conscious or not, there are ties in certain author's works which invite the audience to work through issues along with the author/auteur.  In the case of Peter Jackson, there seems to be some fascination with puppets/fantasy.  His early work dealt mainly with puppets and his last film, King Kong, dealt with one mother of a puppet.  Where the puppet fetish came from is for Jackson (and maybe his therapist to find out).  As for my 4 on the spectrum, both of the above examples are of collaborative efforts.  Tolkien collaborated with history to write the retelling of the war and Jackson collaborated with thousands of people working on his films.  While the creativity seems to branch from a source (seems to) there are always factors which aid in the creation of the work.

This weeks readings find a slightly different way of looking at authorship.  The Kompare piece illustrating the difficulties television encounters with labeling its shows with an author.  The example of Bruckheimer in the Kompare piece exemplifies the tension as to who gets the credit.  The Glass piece looks into the paranoia Mark Twain felt about plagiarism and theft. His attempts to trademark his signature illustrates his genuine fear of losing some of his authorial distinction.  If another person could write and sell under his name by using his signature, Twain's body of work could be rendered impossible to recognize.  That is authorship would come under question.  The Glass book outlines several instances of the author versus the celebrity.  The celebrity seems to exist in tangent, yet outside of the author's work.  The London chapter deals with two different instances, the idea that he was impersonated time after time and that he was accused of plagiarism time after time.  London seems to exemplify the very problem existing with the dichotomy of author and celebrity.  The tensions between what is London and what is "London" muddy the discussion of authorship even further, leaving interesting spaces for discussion.