authorship

I was thinking about the varying voices in Ghostwritten and began to wonder about the Satoru section (Tokyo).  Satoru focuses much of his attention on music, drifting in and out of dream-like sequences as a means to explain the feelings he has that are induced by music.  Much of the attention is on Satoru's feelings and because of these feelings I began to question authorship.  If the author acts as the creator, then there should be a constant narrative voice associated with the author.  But, in a text that compiles a cacophony of voices, each voice is given equal "authorship" of their own story, considering these different chapters are composed primarily in the first person.  Satoru's imagery to portray his emotions can be understood as tiny pieces of art that offer a deeper understanding of not only Satoru, but the emotional and aesthetic response associated with experiencing art.  Through Satoru's eyes, we are able to see a deep emotional connection to music, and, possibly, glimpse the forming of art.

When Satoru listens to an album called "Undercurrent" he describes the music: "an album of water, choppy and brushed by the wind, at other times silent and slow under trees.  On other songs, chords glinting on island seas" (48).  While the description certainly defines the album title, he is bringing the music to life, associating it with nature and thereby making music, jazz music, natural.  He is "painting a picture" and allowing the reader to understand what they may or may not have listened to by assuming that they would be able to understand these natural elements.  Saturo becomes an artist when describing this music.  His voice begins to intertwine with the earthy tones of the jazz music that he describes so that we can understand an intricate character.

What's more interesting is how Satoru calls attention to authorship, "for a moment I had an odd sensation of being in a story that someone was writing, but soon that sensation too was being swallowed up" (55).  This made me question who was speaking to me.  While Satoru is clearly the narrative voice, Mitchell takes this moment to pull himself into the story and call attention to a feeling of not being in control of what is happening by presenting this in the form of storytelling, another medium of art.   These thoughts are coming through as Saturo's but Mitchell is commenting to the reader that this is in fact still a story.  This could possibly be an attempt to describe how art is made, or at least Mitchell's art.  The story begins to take on a life of its own, regardless of the narrative voice and regardless of the author.

As we discuss this novel as a piece of globalization, or as an expression of a globalized narrative, authorship begins to reveal itself as a woven thread that passes through various places, people, and times.   This could possibly be understood as an indicator to the reader that controlling this story is not one individual, but that these various voices have just as much "authorship" as Mitchell. And part of a globalized text, or at least an attempt at weaving a globalized text, is recognizing that sensation, "of being in a story that someone (else) was writing."