BlogChelsea » Mike Daisey, Part Two, Chelsea, NY, NYC, New York, 10011

BlogChelsea » Mike Daisey, Part Two, Chelsea, NY, NYC, New York, 10011:

Daisey, in part two of Modern Living: The Terrors of Literature, a monologue performed at McNally Robinson Bookstore Friday night, told the audience why the written word is so problematic.

Books, he explained, are merely dead tree matter, filled with glyphs that your brain turns into images.  They are pinned down in space and time.  Words stay flat on the page, when essentially writers would like to “wave their hands over them and have the words rise up and hang in the air like a benediction.”

The written word infiltrates our lives like “a lattice work in front of our vision.”  But spoken words are a living breathing aural experience. It can’t be nailed down to an exact time and place.  It is also why, when trying to write down your failed love affair, you can’t do it.  It can’t be seen from above, like light shining through a prism.  Only in performance is it a different experience every time.