Precious Thoughts

CLONMEL -- One of the exercises we do in our Media Writing Course is a review of web site referrers. Some of that electronic information shows that material written for our third level multimedia classroom resurfaces in other websites. Some students are miffed by that occurrence and take no comfort in my Foucaultian retort that writing our course material is not a vehicle for me, the author, to express my emotions or ideas. I teach that the primary purpose of writing isn't meant to communicate from author to reader. In my mind, affected by Michel Foucault, writing's primary purpose is to circulate language through memes, with little regard for individual authors or readers. Foucault says, "It is primarily concerned with creating an opening where the writing subject endlessly disappears." In terms of blogging, that means who said what is subordinated to what is said the most. The message spreading is much more significant than who started the message flowing.

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Michel Foucault -- "What is an author?"
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