Lights, camera, fiction. Ali Bacon thinks about taking to the stage
Something I touched on in a very ancient blog post and am now thinking about a lot more, is that all writing is a performance, because like all artistic endeavours it assumes an audience, an audience whose expectations may be satisfied, disappointed, exceeded, subverted, but always taken into account. (Even if writing is therapeutic or introspective, i.e. the audience is the writer her/himself, that audience still needs satisfaction.) But this isn’t about philosophy or therapy. It’s about the writer as a performer, as in on stage . I could include Youtube and audio tapes but I’m thinking of those times when as authors we’re asked to stand up in public and read our own words. I admit I used to hate it, not because it involved ‘public speaking’ - I was always fine with giving talks and presentations in work situations –but reading my own work felt like presenting myself , my creations, my inner world – which sent me in to an unusually shrinking violet state of mind....