I was all set to spar with Barthes, prepared for this bible of interactive insight. Even with the reluctant acceptance of readers’ rights to write and the understanding of readerly/writerly, I was up for the fight. It is a self-defeating process of learning, this defiance and need to be challenged to change a well-defended position, but in the end, the conviction of one or the other is clear and embedded in the mind.
However, one needs to understand the other before one can change sides. S/Z is a bit over my head, I think, and the battle is more a mental one of knowing thy enemy before strategy and logic is put to use.
But I’m not giving up, as this concept is at least one of the keys I need to open the doors.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology