“I AM SOMEONE. LOOK AT ME”
– THE LIFE AND LITERATURE OF TODAY’S
MEDIATIZED AUTHOR
BY ANNE MYRUP MUNK
AARHUS UNIVERSITY/INSTITUTE FOR AESTHETICS AND
COMMUNICATION
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AARHUS
UNIVERSITY
18 JUNE 2015
ESSAYS IN FOCUS IN THE PRESENTATION
“I am someone. Look at me” by Karl Ove Knausgård in New York Times (2014)
“Generation why” by Zadie Smith in New York Review of Books (2010)
“Man vs. Corpse” by Zadie Smith in New York Review of Books (2014)
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AARHUS
UNIVERSITY
18 JUNE 2015
Novelist Karl Ove Knausgård b.
1968, Norway
Novelist Zadie Smith b. 1975,
United Kingdom
In the world of media convergence, every
important story gets told, every brand gets
sold, and every consumer gets courted
across multiple media platforms.
Henry Jenkins p. 3 in Convergence Culture - where old and
new media collide (2008)
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AARHUS
UNIVERSITY
18 JUNE 2015
The death and return of the
author – Criticism and
Subjectivity in Barthes, Foucault
and Derrida (1998)
By Sean Burke
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AARHUS
UNIVERSITY
18 JUNE 2015
Novelist Karl Ove Knausgård b.
1968, Norway
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AARHUS
UNIVERSITY
18 JUNE 2015
I am someone. Look at me
Essay by Karl Ove Knausgård published in
The New York Times 06/15/2014
Illustrated with photo by Robi Rodriguez
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AARHUS
UNIVERSITY
18 JUNE 2015
You are not to think you are anything special.
You are not to think you are as good as we are.
You are not to convince yourself that you are better than we are.
You are not to think you are more important than we are.
You are not to think you are good at anything.
You are not to think anyone cares about you.
Six of the 10 commandments from the “Law of Jante” the Danish-Norwegian
writer Aksel Sandemoses A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks (1933).
Quoted from Knausgård “I am someone. Look at me” (2014)
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AARHUS
UNIVERSITY
18 JUNE 2015
”You’re not to think you are better than anyone else” was the
refrain I heard throughout my childhood, and it didn’t take
much more than a slightly outlandish hat or a pair of unusual
trousers before people told you off, laughed at you or, in the
worst case ignored you. “He thinks he’s special” was the worst
thing anyone could say about you.
Knausgård: “I am someone. Look at me” (2014)
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AARHUS
UNIVERSITY
18 JUNE 2015
The desire for fame is first and foremost, and perhaps no more
than, the desire of a child. For most people, finding ways of
handling it – of putting the needs of others before one’s own – is
part of becoming an adult. For a very few people, it remains
unmanageable.
Knausgård: “I am someone. Look at me” (2014)
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AARHUS
UNIVERSITY
18 JUNE 2015
”[W]hat is discovered when I started writing my first novel was, that I could
disappear in my writing. The self and all the difficulties and the pain
associated with it, vanished. […] Like no other medium, literature is able to
break the boundaries erected by society. It speaks with a voice influenced by
all the other voices of time and literature. The paradox is that fame, which
emphasizes the individual, is so closely linked to the joy of self-concealment.
Several years ago, I published a book that created an uproar in Norway. […] I
still experience such a sense of shame that I can hardly bring myself to
mention what happened — my face on the front pages of newspapers, my
face on TV — because, by mentioning it, I am saying, “I am someone, look at
me!” But that’s what I am really thinking. I am someone, look at me. And, at
the same time, something else is telling me just the opposite: You are no one.
Who do you think you are? And it is a good thought. […]. It is the only thing that
makes it possible for me to keep on writing.
Knausgård: “I am someone. Look at me” (2014)
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AARHUS
UNIVERSITY
18 JUNE 2015
Joe Moran: Star Authors: Literary
Celebrity in America (2000)
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18 JUNE 2015
Fiction reduces humans, too, but bad fiction does it more than
good fiction, and we have the option to read good fiction.
Zadie Smith “Generation why” (2010)
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18 JUNE 2015
Shouldn’t we struggle against Facebook? Everything in it is
reduced to the size of its founder. Blue, because it turns out
Zuckerberg is red-green color-blind. “Blue is the richest color
for me—I can see all of blue.” Poking, because that’s what shy
boys do to girls they are scared to talk to. Preoccupied with
personal trivia, because Mark Zuckerberg thinks the exchange
of personal trivia is what “friendship” is. A Mark Zuckerberg
Production indeed! We were going to live online. It was going
to be extraordinary. Yet what kind of living is this? Step back
from your Facebook Wall for a moment: Doesn’t it, suddenly,
look a little ridiculous? Your life in this format?”
Zadie Smith in “Generation why?” New York Review of Books
(2010)
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18 JUNE 2015

Miley Cyrus or
the great
Italian
painters..?
Source:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/je
nlewis/miley-cyrus-twerkson-famouspaintings#.ienNX32z75
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18 JUNE 2015
I read plenty about Miley Cyrus, on my IPhone last night. And
you wake up and you hate yourself. My “struggle”! The
overweening absurdity of Karl Ove’s title is a bad joke that
keeps coming back to you as you try to construct a life worthy
of an adult. [S]houldn’t a person live – truly live, a real life –
while they are alive?
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18 JUNE 2015
What’s notable is Karl Ove’s ability, rare in these days, to be
fully present in and mindful of his own existence. Every detail is
put down without apparent vanity or decoration, as if the
writing and the living are happening simultaneously. There
shouldn’t be anything remarkable about any of it except for the
fact that it immerses you totally. You life his life with him.
Zadie Smith in ”Man vs. Corpse” New York Review of Books
(2013)
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18 JUNE 2015
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