the reader vs the writer

[Tanya]

this is comming up in my work increasingly. I have been working with this idea that native cultures are under threat for the same reason many animal species are... and to get to that lots of my work had been using Romni, NA and other obsure languages to express the cultural barrenness we are setting ourselves p so as a metaphor to the bio-barrenness that it will accompany....

trouble is... who speaks Cheyenne or Samii. and do i owe it to my readers to simplify even if it cuts into my art?

[Ceres]

Any artist has to make their art understandable to their audience. The point of art is to express what you feel or think. If you want to express it to others, its part of your job to interpret the art in ways that are understandable to them, no? I think the difficulty is making it understandable without dumbing it down. :)

[The Incense Dragon]

trouble is... who speaks Cheyenne or Samii. and do i owe it to my readers to simplify even if it cuts into my art?

I think you owe it to your readers to put things in a way that they can comprehend it. However, you also owe it to yourself and your readers to be true to your vision. Is it possible to do both? Offer a simplified version and then expand upon it into the fullness that you feel is appropriate. In short, can you find a path where you can do both, even if not at the same time?

-Carl

[Tanya]

which brings me to footnotes as the solution.... but wait... its poetry not a Master's thesis...... but that's what i did in my last book... still....I know for myself i'm a lazy reader, I don't want to work... and if I do.. I'm ashamed to say,, I don't bother.....

still shouldn't art also stretch and challenge the viewer? its hard to find a balance between stretching a breaking...

I guess it will be footnotes...bleck.....it just knida takes some of the magic out of it.. but I abhor arrogent artists who are obscure just to be snobs....

[PsyMoon]

if it's about barriers of language, use the original language, provide one in text translation,and later, bring the original languge back with a different translation.

I think that would illustrate the point very well with out disrupting the flow like it would with footnotes.

JMOHO

[Jolixte]

I'd say offer the footnotes. The reader will read them if they want to. I would; I usually read footnotes. I think my favorite part of 'The Waste Land' was his use of different languages, so please go for it.

[Tanya]

I'd say offer the footnotes. The reader will read them if they want to. I would; I usually read footnotes. I think my favorite part of 'The Waste Land' was his use of different languages, so please go for it.

YOu know Jolixite, you are making me feel better about footnotes now.. I mean I personally as a reader LOVE a meaty footnote...and that is just the sort of stuff I'm doing, for me its about referencing the authentic. TY

[PsyMoon]

YOu know Jolixite, you are making me feel better about footnotes now.. I mean I personally as a reader LOVE a meaty footnote...and that is just the sort of stuff I'm doing, for me its about referencing the authentic. TYyou might want to look at "Infinite Jest:A Novel"by David Foster Wallace and "House of Leaves" by Mark Z.Danielewski for some meaty footnotes used in an artistic manner.