Authorship and Favorite Authors

As I listed my favorite authors, it occured to me that I was not including "authors" but authored works in a variety of media. And one of those listed works is a computer game! Another look at the list tells me that eclectic is a good word to describe that list. So, why did each one make it to that list? And is it the author? Or the work? Or is it my co-authoring as reader?

First, Alice Walker. She saved my life. No other way to put it. Once upon a dark night of a ragged worn out run down life where my ability to believe in the magic of being alive had vanished, The Temple of My Familiar dropped into my lap. Not the book--though I now own five copies. No, it was the audio cassette tapes. I starting playing them in my car. Walker read the book. Her voice combined with the story and opened my heart. I am not sure I know another way to say that. The Color Purple provided me the same kind of smooth medicine.

So, I turned to Ms. Walker like a dying woman reaching out for a strong hand holding a pen that could change my world. And got no kind grasp in return. Her other works offer me no solace. I want them to warm me, but they do not. Complicated how the author and the work get intertwined. And for me those lines do blur. I can still see Walker's photo and feel my heart lift, but I do not go to her other works for comfort. They bite and spit and holler. Her work calls out to be heard and some of what she needs for us to hear goes down like strong bitter medicine. I read them all, and some make me cringe and some make me cry. They all make me think. But it is to the first two that I return again and again. And yes, I still have the cassette tapes tucked away like a talisman.

The other works all represent worlds that I visit that take me completely away. I love authors who make me question my assumptions and raise hard questions, or just build a world that I want to inhabit for a little while. Most recently, I fell almost by accident into the World of Warcraft universe. Never gamed before. Never thought I would. But love it--almost too much. I want to explore how the universe of a massive multi-player online computer game allows a gamer to "author" a presence and build a world. I have no idea yet how that process will fit into the class, but as I do the readings, I see fascinating connections.

Making Worlds

I titled this blog "Making Worlds" because to me that is what authorship means. I find many connections between authoring and world making. In this context, I see the world of the written story, the visual narrative of film, and most recently, the multimedia universe of avatars/characters/toons in an online multi-player computer game as forms of meaning-making and authoring.