welcome to my brain

Walking through the bookstore the other day, I noticed something strange: all I saw, everywhere, were names of authors all around the room. I didn't see really any titles of books, or many pictures on the covers, either; just huge, bold, sometimes even fluorescent names of authors. On the side, here, is an example of a book like this- it's obvious that Danielle Steel wrote it, since her name is so prominently displayed at the top of the cover in bold black. Notice that the title of the book, The House, is at the bottom of the cover, in smaller letters, and is almost disguised by being nearly the same color as the background.
I've noticed this for a long time, actually, and I just think it's kind of obnoxious. Do the authors really think they are that important that they need to put their names that huge on the book cover?

Apparently, Roland Barthes noticed this, too. In "The Death of the Author," he says that this incredible, illogical emphasis on the author is "...the epitome and culmination of capitalist ideology, which has attached the greatest importance to the 'person' of the author." He definitely hit it on the head here: in our capitalistic society, the prestige of the individual is both bankable and desirable. I think this is American individualism at its finest-- any opportunity to put yourself on a pedestal is crucial. Just look at reality television. Even though these people make complete asses out of themselves, just the chance to get on TV and be a "star" and seen by millions of people completely bypasses any sense of dignity. I think I'm getting really far from the original point, but the reality TV thing does relate to the whole capitalist-individualism thing.

Anyway, when reading The Death of the Author, I was under the impression that Barthes was from the 1800s or something, since most of the essays we've read in the Norton Anthology have been by people from the 1800s. I was reading this, thinking, wow! Things must have been the same back then as they are now, in regards to capitalism and the importance of the individual. But then I looked at the year he wrote it, and it was written in 1968. I stand corrected.

So, considering what we've been talking about in class with Structuralism and Romanticism, I think it's safe to say that the Romantics would say that the Author is divine, while a Structuralist would disagree and say that the reader is what's important. Words are just words on a page until the reader reads them and rewrites them in his/her head. I think Barthes would be included in the Structuralist category, considering his dislike for the elevated "importance" of the author. More on this later.