Bradnt's "Who's the President?"

Brandt’s “Who’s the President: Ghostwriting and Shifting Values in Literacy” looks at how ghostwriting both helps and hurts the values instilled into writing and literacy. Brandt explores different situations where ghostwriting is used and the issues it brings up. Brandt first uses the example of Dennis Kucinich. Kucinich publicly denounced the practice of using ghostwriters, something that the other nominees had used to help write campaign books. He asked, “’If a president has a ghostwriter, who’s the president?’” (549). This is reminiscent of Barth’s “Death of an Author,” specifically the example at the beginning of the text when he gives an example from a text and asks who said the line.

            Further on in her article, Brandt establishes a short history of practices that are equivalent to modern day ghostwriting. She mentions the hiring of scribes and scholars, the eighteenth century practice of publishers and printing companies claiming ownership over documents they published, something discusses more in depth in Feather’s article that we read two weeks ago. Brandt then quotes the current US copyright law that states when writers are commissioned to produce a document, the ownership of the document rests in the hands of the benefactor (553).

            Brandt emphasizes the amount of skill it takes for ghostwriters to do their job well, more specifically, “bringing an author into being” (555). Brandt includes interviews with ghostwriters to best describe what the process involves. Ghostwriters usually interview the person they are writing for in order learn themes and write as if they were their employer. Clearly this part of the ghostwriting takes skill, learning what the right questions are to ask the person and detecting hints that indicate to the ghostwriter how that person would write. So “bringing an author into being” sounds like it is a fusion of the employer’s thoughts and speaking techniques and the writer’s ability combine words to create a sophisticated and brilliant document. Brandt then uses writers that observe their employer speaking so they can understand how they will read the document. Brandt notes, “Ghostwriters expend a great deal of energy trying to capture the ‘signature’ style of thought or values of an author-client” (556). Again the skill it must take to discover this is remarkable. Brandt starts mentioning negative consequences of ghostwriting when she tells of a CEO who was not happy with the product his ghostwriter gave him. In this instance the CEO, “expos[ed] its status in public and distancing himself from the words” (558). Because the employer owns the writing, they have the right to reveal its origin to remove the responsibility and blame the person who actually produced it.

            Brandt moves on to talk about “scarcities” that incite ghostwriting (559). She starts out by listing time as a scarcity. This concept is common sense, people with high up positions that come with an abundance of responsibility take up a lot of time and in order to manage the job, some things need to be outsourced to others. Brandt names CEOs and politicians as examples of this. The next scarcity Brandt mentions is knowledge. Again, she cites politicians, stating that there is no way they have the time to understand all complexities of the decisions they have to make. They enlist ghostwriters with to do the research and compose an in depth document regarding the issue at hand. Finally Brandt lists skill as a scarcity. Skills included are the ability to write, literacy, and understanding a certain language. Without these skills, a person is unable to sufficiently and competently express what it is his/her document is meant to achieve. The situation Brandt uses as an example is a writer helping immigrants prepare documents such as personal letters to family members and, “official correspondence with the U.S. government over such matters as immigration, citizenship, employment, housing, or social welfare” (561). Brandt explains that the government assumes a level of competency of the English language and a ghostwriter can give immigrants that literacy.

            Brandt’s final section deals with controversies that have come up with ghostwriting. Areas of ghostwriting that have come under fire include the military, law, and science. The main concern with each of these is the misrepresentation ghostwriting can produce. Critics feel ghostwriting in these areas can create a false image of the benefactor’s competency of the matter and also makes the readers feel mislead.

            Brandt finishes by stating, “But as I hope I have demonstrated, ghostwriting also is a unique ground upon which current transformations in literacy may be particularly apprehensible” (567). Brandt shows ghostwriting and the implications it brings is actively altering the values in our culture as well as the concept of literacy.

            As I read this article, I realized how truly complex the concept of ghostwriting is. The dynamic between the ghostwriter and the “owner” of the document appears balanced and completely unbalanced at the same time. The ghostwriter is providing a service for the employer and is getting paid for their services. However if the document, such as a book, receives critical acclaim, the commissioner reaps the benefits. But, if the benefactor disagrees with the product, they can publicly reveal that they did not write it and shift the blame to the ghostwriter even though they paid to own it.

Questions

1.      Brandt discusses controversial situations of ghostwriting, the central theme for all of her examples is the misrepresentation of which the writer is and the reader feeling deceived. How is it that in these circumstances it is considered wrong, but in other circumstances, say politicians hiring speech writers or a well known author hiring writers to write some of their books, it is standard practice? How is it the reader is not deceived in these situations?

2.      In the movie and television business, it is standard practice that writers write for the actors to say the lines and bring the characters to life. Even though they are given credit, the majority of critics and fans give credit to the actors for the show’s or movie’s success. Is this practice relatable to ghostwriting?