Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Response in Social Media = S/Z

Roland Barthes wrote in his book S/Z (1970) about “Sarrasine,” which is a very old style, at times boring, short story by Balzac. The main plot in “Sarrasine” takes a long time to be presented to the reader, but it is nonetheless a very good story—if you read it, please, don't let the excessive naturalism intimidate you, just keep reading; it will get better. Barthes believes that readers can actually interact with a text that is not a major piece of literature. He calls the big, important texts “readerly” because the reader cannot change them anymore. In contrast, the reader can change a minor text by analyzing and writing about it. He called the minor literature texts, writerly. In my opinion, writerly equals collaboration and response in social media.

If everyday, we post a photo, a status, or a video and never engage on commenting on other people's photos, status, or video, then it is not social media. In other words, we have to act like Barthes suggested and analyze and re-write somebody else's discourse.And for that to happen, we also have to try to post something that is not perfect or almost perfect, because it may not get a response, even if it influences others. In other words, the best interaction in social media may come from a half-baked thought, a crazy photo, a video with a comment in which the plot or the ending is not given away, a question, and so on. I'm not calling for unfinished sentences, or unfinished blog posts, but rather for a an analysis plus a statement that will allow readers/followers/friends/contacts to keep the conversation going.

What do you think, does social media equal writerly?  Is every single status a writerly text?

2 comments:

  1. The question of creating a post that initiates a response, an exchange, and perhaps begins a dialog is something I've been considering lately. I can write my blog post for myself, or I can see how I can put my thoughts out that might generate dialog. I'm still new at this. I think some of my posts aren't so inviting while others seem to generate responses or more interest... Your post helps me to think a bit more about this. Am I writerly or just readerly, or neither...!

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  2. Thanks for the comment. I believe that we don't have to be writerly all the time. It is just like musicians, who can have one very popular album, and then one that is not that popular.

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