The Politics of Art & Authenticity

Although I was not able to attend the actual reading due to sickness, I was lucky enough to find the video footage of her reading an excerpt from one of her early pieces, Fado. 

http://katherinevaz.com/fado-other-stories_283.html

I don’t have many memories of having someone read stories for me. Even during childhood, having your parents read bedtime stories was something I would only see in a movie or TV as part of western culture. Being an independent child, I generally enjoyed reading by myself. I liked to be immersed in my own thoughts and visions as I read the story.

Reading Lisbon Story was not easy at first. With all the foreign terms and images the author tried to depict, I needed time to adjust to the setting. After a several attempts of rereading the first few pages, I finally found my pace and started reading until I reached the end of the story without noticing the time flying. Her story is definitely descriptive and the character’s voices, very distinct. I did not have much trouble distinguishing who’s whom and picturing rather exotic and unfamiliar scenes as I was reading. But in the end I think it was the message of the story which helped me understand better and keep reading, the theme that revolves around basic human lives and respect, common in almost every culture.

The video of her reading I found does not contain the whole story but Vaz gives a general summary in the beginning and in the middle to help the audience follow the contents she is going to read out loud. When she was giving the brief introduction of the characters and their relationships somehow I found it very difficult to catch up and draw the image inside my head. Without establishing this basic information of the characters, I knew I was going to be so confused and disoriented, trying to figure out the characters name with the background, the situation and the reasons behind their actions. I had to physically draw out the picture of the relationships to help me understand. People say hearing the actual author read her story is the most direct way to understand the story as it is. Generally I would agree. Who can have better understanding of the story and idea of how to deliver it than the actual creator herself? However, listening to Katherine Vaz read the story, I understood why there’s the screen writer, the director and the actors performing each role. During her reading I could definitely feel that it was derived from her own childhood experiences through her enthusiasm of the voice and etc. However, her rather “not soft” and “not very childlike” (I’m trying to be as indirect as possible) voice just disrupted me, the listener, from being deeply engaged in the story. My image of the protagonist, who is suppose to be a young girl, did not seem to harmonize well with the voice.

In sum, her stories whether in print or sound contained a lot of imagery to keep the audience interested and the story, containing real live situations and human emotions were good enough to make it relatable despite the cultural differences that may exist to some readers. However, although I have huge respect towards the authors and their reading sessions, I prefer reading by myself to being read to by someone else. I like imagining the voices inside my head, controlling the speed of the scenes, putting my own thoughts and having my own moments of reflections. These just seem to be very unlikely when you are being read to especially at the moment where you have no control of stopping or rewinding the story.

I acknowledge that it might have been different if I had attended the reading and heard it myself. Which is why I look forward to do it as soon as I get the chance. However, I believe it would be better to have read the story beforehand so I can better compare and comprehend it and ask questions to further the knowledge of the literature.