The Politics of Art & Authenticity

I’m not sure that I enjoyed hearing Katherine Vaz speak before reading her story. Because I had some idea of her writing style from her book excerpt, I mentally prepared myself to be unsure of what was going on in the plot. While the two experiences of listening versus reading were vastly different, both stories contained the extensive metaphors and confusing personal relationships that I assume are typical of her work. The act of being passively or actively engaged in the reading however, put a different spin on the writing. I find it very hard to follow a story that someone is reading to me, while I get intensely engrossed in the books that I read.  So I found myself dozing off during the reading, while the story kept me contentedly busy on the train.

In terms of the plots of the two stories, the one that Ms. Vaz read to us has a male protagonist, while the one I read on my own has a female one. Though this is an obvious contrast, I don’t feel that it overly affected the styles of the two stories. But I applaud her for being able to do this. Also, the two were set in vastly different locations and time periods, which is something I really enjoyed. Each one is its own complete journey through the life of someone completely unique.

This is the first time that I’ve ever been to a book reading, but it was exactly as I’d pictured it. Meaning to say it was slow and a bit pointless. I really cannot understand what purpose it serves to have the author read her work. Though I appreciated the backstory of all the research that was involved, as well as the question and answer session, I did not find hearing the author read her story enjoyable. I would much rather have read the actual work myself and then, if I liked it, go to some sort of meet and greet with the author to ask her questions after I’ve read it. Are there any book readings like this? Or are they always arranged to introduce new books? Though I guess book readings are meant to be a sort of promotion technique, this is my idea for a more enjoyable experience to be had by all:
The author sends out excerpts of her book for the audience to read, and then, if the audience is intrigued, they can meet the author to ask questions and find out more about the book. I think that this would combine the best of both worlds – I could read the book myself and also get the interesting backstory.

All in all, though the book reading was a first time experience for me, I think I’d like to stick with reading books myself instead of having them read to me. I like to imagine things on my own and not have the author’s voice inflections and overall tone affect my opinions about what’s going on. The truly remarkable thing about a book is the singular form of communication it uses, which allows the reader a part in determining the characters personalities. A book reading ruins this.