G.W.

I am really looking forward to trying out this ghost writing project. I think that the most difficult part of the whole affair is going to be finding someone who has something that needs to be written. Also, the concept as a whole is rather interesting. It is not the overall quality that is important in this project, it's being able to shed your own writing style and pick up the pen from a completely different perspective.m I am curious to see how difficult it is to match the frame of mind of someone else.

Questions of Aura

Benjamin describes an intangible and elusive element of original artwork which, though it can only be explained in the vaguest of terms, is weighted with great value. This distinct, creative enigma, which Benjamin has termed as the "aura" of a work of art, is immediately stricken from its source of influence upon the mechanical recreation of the art form. To me, the most interesting question with regards to the aura deals with the conditions of its value. Why, when two pictures look identical in every aspect, is the original bestowed with such significance? It seems of little sense to claim that there is great meaning in the deliberate form of a painting, only to dismiss the importance of an object of the same form but different conception. If the objects have the same form and function, and therefor should logically hold the same truths within them, why are those born of men viewed so differently than those born of machine. It seems to me that there is a mysticism with the romanticized ideal of human creativity which most wish to cling to. The possibility of mechanical recreation of such artistic endeavors destroys this illusion of aura for some by collapsing the singularity of the work. However, the artistic spirit and creativity in which the work was conceptualized is preserved. It is not the idea that the machine creates, simply the form. The complex web of thought and emotion which constitutes the experience of both artistic creation and perception are things which machines know nothing of. Furthermore, it often occurs that the meaning and cultural significance of a work are overshadowed by the intoxication with its aura. Mechanical reproduction is a tool for stripping away this veil and bringing the true virtue of the art to the masses.

Breaking the Bonds of Authorship

After further contemplation of the concepts presented by Barthes, I find the notion that the association between an author and their written work can actually detract from the individual experience in regard to that literature extremely intriguing. It seems that the process of assigning proper authorship, and thereby ownership, has had such pointed emphasis placed on it as of late that the author and their work can, at times, become synonymous. People can draw conclusion about the text between a pair of covers without ever opening them. If a title and Author name are provided, inferences about the textual content will be drawn from what is already known about the individual creator of the work. Barthes's proposition that for a work to be properly experienced in all of its possible avenues or perception and individual, creative interpretation, the author must fade into the shadows. This creates a situation in which the reader is able to experience the text without being bound to the notion that they should contemplate it in a specific and predetermined manner. However, in a world of continuing global interconnectivity, as well as creative profitability, I feel authors will be ever more reluctant to allow their readers to forget who is responsible for the creative work.