Amanda Baggs and her audience

Through reading Amanda Baggs’ blog posts and watching her video, I can definitely see a difference in the way she treats her audience compared to most other writers.  Not every writer is out there to be best buddies with their readers, but I usually find it more common in blogs for writers to try to relate to their audience.  Amanda doesn’t waste time on that.  She’s not writing so that her readers will develop an emotional connection to her, or so that they’ll feel like they’re reading something from a friend; she’s not even crusading.  She’s writing to get her point across.

Baggs’ writing is a bit shocking at first.  She is clearly angry about the way she and other disabled people are treated, and she’s not pulling any punches.  She doesn’t sugar coat it; she wants her readers to see the bare truth.  If that makes her readers uncomfortable, disgusted, outraged, or frustrated, then she’s done her job.  People should feel all these things when they read about the inequalities that people with disabilities face just because they do things differently. 

One thing about Baggs’ writing that is especially confrontational is the way she groups her audience with the people who mistreat her.  Some of the things she writes are directly addressed to her tormentors, so that her readers, who may or may not include the people she’s addressing, face the brunt of that. It makes her readers question their own actions toward those with disabilities.  Have they ever made someone this uncomfortable before? Why have they never thought of things this way?

The reason why this approach can be useful is because Baggs knows that her audience wouldn’t take her as seriously if she were just blogging nice stories about cats (which she does, but she keeps it to a separate blog).  Not everything she posts is as bitter as others, but that’s just because she’s speaking the truth. Some things make her angry and some don’t.  She posts the truth of what she’s feeling and thinking, and if that makes her readers uncomfortable, then she’s making them see how she feels.

Author proposal

To find a place to start with this project, I basically began asking myself a lot of questions.  First things first, who am I studying?  I chose to study the novels of Stieg Larsson, but why am I interested?  His novels are a huge international hit.  A lot of times, really big bestsellers don’t always have notable style other than that they’re easy to read.  Larsson’s novels aren’t super easy to read, but they’re still immensely popular.  There is something about this style that intrigues me.  One thing I like about it is that he uses techniques that would normally bother me from other writers, so I'm interested to see why they work.  He writes a lot of long, specifically detailed descriptive paragraphs that might normally be hard to get through from some writers but seem to work coming from Larsson.  He also switches character points of view rather quickly, without indication and often times without even having introduced the character beforehand.

Being interested doesn't make this a simple project, however.  There are a few big things that will complicate my work.  First, his novels were written in Swedish, so they were obviously translated by the point when I read them.  Second, Larsson is dead and his works were published posthumously, so he has never commented on his writing style in the way a writer with his fame and success normally would have.

So, what is my big question?  What am I hoping to learn more about?  I want to look at this project from the angle of the translation.  How does the translation of Stieg Larsson’s work affect his style, voice and ethos?

It will take a lot of work to answer a question like that, though.  First things first, I'll need to get myself a little more acquainted with the crime novel genre.  I've read other crime novels, but I don't stick to a particular genre when reading, so I do need some background information.  Where do Larsson's books fit in the genre?  His writing definitely has political and social motivation.  Is that normal for the genre, especially to the extent Larsson takes it?

Once I figure more out about the genre, I need to start looking at the translation.  Basically, I need to discover how much of the translator himself gets mixed into the work during translation.  I need to find out what Steven Murray, the translator of the novels, says about his work and technique.  Does he believe he takes part in the creative process?  (He claims he does.  Do other translators agree?)  I also need to discover some basic knowledge about translating.  What does it take to become a translator, and what kind of work goes into translating a novel?  Understanding this will help me get into some more detailed questions.  

I'll need to discover what kind of attempts are usually made to preserve style while translating.  I want to know what kinds of cultural factors are lost or preserved.  Does the translator make stylistic choices to appeal to the new target audience, or does he/she make an effort to preserve the original intended style?  What affect does this have on ethos?

In addition, because Larsson is dead, I plan to do some research on other translated novels so I can get more insight from both the author’s point of view and the translator’s.  Their commentary will help me discover what might have happened in the translation of these novels.  Some comments I found online indicated that the translation seemed rushed in order to make the novel available to be turned into a screenplay.  Is this a common opinion?  How does that change things?

Looking at the novels from the angle of their translation will help me better understand Larsson's style of writing by identifying how much of it might have been changed by the translation.  It will also help me better understand how ethos could be affected in a situation like this. 

Website Ethos

Pepsi, IKEA and Dove all have very different websites and products they’re trying to sell.  It’s clear that they have different target audiences and that they develop their websites accordingly.  I looked at Pepsi and Dove first.  Pepsi’s website is loud, and I mean that literally.  When you open the page, some video about the X-Factor starts playing.  My immediate thought was that Pepsi must not expect people to be at work when they visit the Pepsi site because that kind of noise is distracting (and annoying, if you want my honest opinion).  Because of this, I can assume that they’re trying to look fresh, creative, and attractive to young people.  The page is littered with references to social media, music, and culture.  They want to appear fun and appealing (which is literally their explanation for adding color to some products).  They’re also upfront about a lot of things for the sake of establishing trust as a product.  They have pages discussing allergens, beverages of theirs that can and cannot be sold in schools, and their nutritional information and ingredients are listed clearly in easy-to-print pages.

Dove’s website is similar to Pepsi’s, but it clearly addresses a different audience.  It has a pretty simple look to it: soft colors, clean lines and easy organization.  It lacks a lot of the dramatic animation of Pepsi’s website.  It’s pretty clear that Dove is trying to appeal to women.  They want to appear friendly, down to earth, but motivated and inspired. Dove talks about its mission to inspire confidence in other women through real-life role models.  They want to establish trust; they want customers to feel that Dove is on their side.  They talk about beauty myths in one of their articles, clearing the air about what ingredients are actually harmful (and casually mentioning that, of course, their products are free of these ingredients).  Through videos and “fun” articles, Dove talks about the science behind their products, giving customers more reason to trust the product. 

IKEA’s website is very different from the other two in the sense that it is more blatantly an online store (Pepsi and Dove simply direct you to suppliers).  There aren't really articles that give opportunities to hear the real “voice” of the company, but it is still evident that they are trying to send a message about what kind of company they are.  IKEA projects the image that they are simple, comfortable, and they make life easier.  They have helpful online chat assistance that is easily available at the top of the main page.  Things are clearly sorted by departments and product types.  They want customers to feel relaxed and at home.   IKEA even offers specials to those who are a part of the IKEA “family,” as if we’re all a bunch of people who have camaraderie through the bargains we find and the fantastic rooms we’ve created through shopping at IKEA.  

It was a surprise to me when I started reading Hemmingway’s “A Clean, Well Lighted Place” because I recognized it.  After I got a few lines into the piece, I remembered reading it last year for another class.  This is a notable thing because I very rarely remember the countless short stories and poems I am assigned to read; my eyes register the words on the page, I retain knowledge of the plot long enough to discuss it in class and maybe take an exam, and then I forget all about it.  This story was memorable to me because even though I still don’t know what it is about, it’s unique that way.  The writing is bare and even drab, but it’s interesting because of it.

 

In her blog Smitten Kitchen, Deb writes completely differently.  While both styles can be considered conversational, they are not the same.  Deb’s seems a lot more energetic, which I attribute to her use of punctuation.  When Hemmingway writes, he often uses long sentences with very basic language and little punctuation that make the sentences feel slow and lazy.  Deb is much fonder of punctuation; she utilizes parentheses, colons, semi-colons, lots of commas, and she often italicizes words for emphasis.  While it might actually be slower reading something with so much punctuation, things seem to move faster because of the short sentences.   

Deb’s writing style is more engaging.  It’s friendlier, it’s warmer, and it’s filled with wit.  Hemmingway’s is straightforward, but rich in what it doesn’t say.  The slow, simple descriptions Hemmingway gives allows the reader to fill in the blanks.  In everyday reading, I’d prefer to encounter styles like the one Deb uses on her blog.  It’s easy to read, it’s entertaining, and it doesn't try too hard to be complex or fancy.  However, Hemmingway’s style has its place.  If “A Clean, Well Lighted Place” had been written with Deb’s writing style, the profound simplicity of the story would be lost.