Part 2: Authorship explored by Amardeep Singh

While I was going through the different blogs looking for some type of reference to authorship I came across Amardeep Singh's post entitled, "Why I didn't like 'The White Tiger.'" In this particular blog post Amardeep Singh states the reasons why he did not like the novel, which was supposedly acclaimed by critics. Singh states that the novel was very unrealistic and fake in nature, because the main character who is supposedly "half baked" goes on long rants that would be quite impossible for someone of his mental state. In this way, the novel doesn't make much sense. Because Singh questioned the intentions of the author for creating a contradicting main character, Singh is acknowledging the fact that in his eyes the author of the book has little validity. If the author is not going to properly portray the main character of the novel, then he loses a sense of accountability to the readers. When I was reading Barthes' "The Death of the Author" he stated that writer's can only make imitations of other original works, and therefore the ability to express oneself declines, because originality ceases to exist. Because all that exists are imitations the text becomes "lost, infinitely deferred" (Rice and Waugh, 188). In relation to "The White Tiger" as Singh describes it, the novel did not make any sense, because of the contradictions and the politically incorrect topics explored. According to Barthes, perhaps the reason that the novel did not make much sense, was because of the multiple writings and imitations within the text. The imitations in the text made it completely unfocused, and as a result it lost its meaning. Barthes also stated that once the critic looks to the author, the text is explained. This could possibly account for the reason in which "The White Tiger" was positively acclaimed by critics, while at the same time, he did not understand it or like it. Barthes claimed that no one ever pays any attention to the reader, even though the reader plays a critical part in focusing the text. While "The White Tiger" was acclaimed and the author made important as the creator of the text, the reader's position remains insignificant and small. Although I've never read "The White Tiger" I think Singh made a very good point concerning the author's validity within the text.