“Art Versus Artist: What’s a Poor Reader to Do?” (2021-2022)

I specifically recall reading Vladimir Nabokov’s Pnin, Lolita, and Pale Fire all in one summer and obsessing on the eccentricities of the man himself. Yet as I read more about him, it struck me that he was quite misogynistic. But I pushed this information to the back of my brain and told myself that since he was dead, it hardly mattered anymore. As someone who fixates on certain books and then heavily romanticizes their authors, I have far too often been disappointed. Yet after J.K. Rowling published her explicitly transphobic tweets in the summer of 2020, I was not only angry but confused. As someone who grew up in the pages of Harry Potter, where did that leave me now? When my professor’s prompted us to find an occasion for writing, I seized the opportunity and set to work on an idea that would have been merely discarded as a passing thought.

In putting together this essay, I attempted to tackle two essays from Barthes and Foucault respectively. Although I was quite intimidated at first, I found myself struck by the conclusions they arrived at in their work. With Foucault especially, I was astounded by his ability to break down seemingly simple terms such as “author” and “work” that I had previously taken for granted. In fact, I’d like to think that feeling is representative of my experience in class this semester. While I had considered myself a decent writer before, I certainly believe that this class changed the way in which I perceive writing. Rather than treating the essay as a means to articulate my already-formed thoughts, I attempted to transform it into a reader-centered experience. I asked explicit questions so that the reader would follow my own line of thinking as I tried to solve each problem that was presented. In fact, I sometimes asked questions to which there was sometimes no singular answer. While I may have previously shied away from including such evidence in my thought process, I allowed myself to dwell in that uncertainty and arrive at conclusions that were much richer than they would have been otherwise.

Stephanie Huang (CAS ’24) is a rising sophomore in the College of Arts and Science, hailing from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. As a neuroscience major, Stephanie understands the inner workings of the brain. Which synapses wire what, which chemicals flare the senses, and the ways that the brain lights up in response to stimuli. Her passion for the arts pushed her to understand the brain in a more metaphorical way, however—be it painting through your emotions, playing a striking sonata, or crafting a piece of writing that forces you to think differently. Her art, and more specifically her writing, allows her to ponder questions beyond the realm of the physical sciences. In her essay, she questions your mind.