This whole "shared authority" thing is bogus. Unless you are sitting on one end of a log and the story teller is sitting on the other end, there are always intermediaries who shape the story and edit the writing. Does Maxwell Perkins' involvement mean that Fitzgerald's and Wolfe's books are not literature?

"Shared authority" is an oral history term, not a literature one, just to clarify.

{{Jessica, DH & Dylan}} Feel better soon sproglet. Our household joins you in the sick today, if that is any consolation.

Thankfully, it looks like yesterday's bug was just a 12-hour thing. He's still not eating any solid foods, but at least he's keeping down the formula & pedialyte.

When I talked to our ped on the phone, she said all her patients yesterday had come in with the same symptoms, so there's definitely something going around.

vw - congratulations!!

good job, VW!

and I read what you put up - and without coffee I decided that 1) shared authority does not mean something isnt literature - there are two many ways to poke at that theory. 2) but what you did was say - ok, let's pretend this is true - here is how you covered it - record , review, correct, and write. So that the story is as close to authentic as it can be when going from oral to written. this gives it the voice of one authority

I don't really know how he is defining literature - but I am guessing this shared authority idea means folk ales/fairy tales - and other early stuff like beowolf can't be lit. nor translations, nor and co-authored stuff. I think the theory is flawed. and without coffee I can't see another side

ok - if shared authority is an oral history term I get it less.

Oral history can have more than one authority , because , for example , the story of great grandma and the bear has the origianl teller of the tale and then i becomes that story that everyone tells long after great grandma is gone so that is the shared authority?

It's more about collaboration.That's its point....sharing the authority. I think. I hope!

Yeah, I'm sure it must be more thought-out than seems immediately obvious -- he's presumably a smart person, after all -- but it does seem a little confusing.

Or is the problem that oral narrative, in its original form (that is, oral), has no official, authoritative form in the same way that something that's written down does, and therefore isn't literature until it's recorded?

Congratulations vw!

I really, really want breakfast, but I forgot that the new card I got in the mail yesterday hasn't been activated so I can't just run downstairs and get a burrito. I have to drive to the bank (and probably get gas) activate the card, come back, go down to the caf to get a burrito.

WHY DOES THIS HAVE TO BE SO HARD!?!

I'm so glad Dylan is feeling better.

Yay, vw! That is such an amazing accomplishment. I remember when you were out here last year for that conference and met that Huge Important Researcher, and what a jolt of brainiac joy it gave you to have him get all excited about your thesis and tell you not to let his research stop you. (Also, I'm completely in awe of you, and everyone who's done a serious research thesis--I did a creative thesis because the research would have killed me.)

Matilda is on my lap now; she was completely riveted by all the pictures of Cooper, even the first one--she pointed at his fat little toes and said solemnly, "Bay. Bee."

Laga's sister's asshat has been begging for a SPLORCH*squeeky* for quite a while now. What a nasty, vindictive fuckwad (and, really, what does he have to be vindictive about? Is he bitter that her willingness to devastate the entire rest of her life to accommodate his assholishness finally had a limit? Well, fuck him).

Or is the problem that oral narrative, in its original form (that is, oral), has no official, authoritative form in the same way that something that's written down does, and therefore isn't literature until it's recorded?

That was the conclusion I was coming to ...