Oh, that's a really interesting idea, that by "displacement" one could be invoking not (really quite problematic) narratives of authenticity but rather of power and control, which is what arguments about authenticity are revealed to be once one strips away the questionable metaphysics. It'd take some work to convince me that what the poster I cited meant--I construct the author-function of her post such that she was actually concerned with some type of unconstructed authenticity--but that is a way of rehabillitating her argument and making it make sense.
But again, death of the author, you know? I'm not sure how one could sensibly argue that in any relationship we have access to the identity the actual person is trying to project, or--even if we had such access--that the "true meaning" is or should be based on authorial intent, especially if that intent is to control those signifiers in order to manipulate, defraud, etc.
And it's precisely those with the most power and influence--such as the President of the United States--who take on the blank slate, are the "princess in the castle" upon whom displacement occurs; she assumes bloggers on the internet--and presumably by extension our friends offline--are people we're truly getting to know. So if they're trying to control their signifiers, they're doing a terrible job of it.
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Date: 2008-01-30 03:46 pm (UTC)But again, death of the author, you know? I'm not sure how one could sensibly argue that in any relationship we have access to the identity the actual person is trying to project, or--even if we had such access--that the "true meaning" is or should be based on authorial intent, especially if that intent is to control those signifiers in order to manipulate, defraud, etc.
And it's precisely those with the most power and influence--such as the President of the United States--who take on the blank slate, are the "princess in the castle" upon whom displacement occurs; she assumes bloggers on the internet--and presumably by extension our friends offline--are people we're truly getting to know. So if they're trying to control their signifiers, they're doing a terrible job of it.