Audience Analysis 1

Running head: AUDIENCE ANALYSIS

Audience Analysis

Má rcio Padilha

Lewis-Clark State College

ENGL 305 – Rossiter

Fall/2010
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Audience Analysis

Eric Rosenfield and JF Quackenbush have created and maintained Wet Asphalt, a

self-described “literary, sometimes personal” blog, hosted at www.wetasphalt.com since

July 7, 2008. Based in Brooklyn, NY, Rosenfield is a computer programmer and writer, with

both fiction and non-fiction works published in several venues. Although his personal

education level is not explicitly stated, the résumé of this self-described “lover of books and

other things” shows impressive technological skills which would infer no less than

equivalency to a bachelor’s degree in computer science, thereby suggesting an above-

average mastery of analytical logics. JF Quackenbush, on the other hand, is self-described as

“poet, art critic, struggling novelist, and professional quality assurance consultant who lives

in Seattle, Washington.” Quackenbush also has materials published in journals and despite

no readily available references to his educational level, one can infer by the caliber of his

above-average writing skills that he is highly educated.

Wet Asphalt is a rather bare and unadorned website. With a white background and

dark grey writing, this blog carries a few nonintrusive advertisements such as electronic

book reading devices and on-demand book publishing services which are specific to the

interest of the targeted audience. In essence, the blog looks rather boring in that its focus

seems to be more strictly tied to delivering content rather than to being visually attractive

and engaging new prospective readers. Nevertheless, this look might be an intentional

implied reference which alludes to a homonymous 1958 black-and-white German thriller

where the main characters struggle to discern who is saying what and whether it is true or

not.
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Whereas Wet Asphalt does allow for registered members to post comments in

response to the main blog entries, these comments are not readily available for reading and

subsequent commenting under the main posting. Although that does not construe an

insurmountable barrier, I couldn’t help but perceive it as a deterrent which ultimately

preserves Rosenfield’s and Quackenbush’s opinions, and possible those they favor, at the

center stage and under the spotlight.

Although it is not readily clear how much editorial power Rosenfield or

Quackenbush may exert on the content made public via Wet Asphalt, it would be fair to

assume that all published material is in alignment with their personal ideologies,

philosophies and visions. With that said, Tom Bissell, also a published author and

contributing editor for Harper's and the Virginia Quarterly Review, posted his review of

Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close to Wet Asphalt.

Bissell’s writing style, similar to that of Rosenfield’s and Quackenbush’s, calls for a

very literate audience. Fluidic in argument and logic, his review of Extremely Loud &

Incredibly Close assumes that his readers will have a substantial preexisting base

knowledge which will enable to them to relate his commentary to how Foer developed his

novel.

Based on Foer’s previous commercial and critical success with Everything is

Illuminated, Bissel predisposes his audience to expect Foer’s work to be “in the ranks of

Carson McCullers, Truman Capote, Martin Amis, and John Updike.” Clearly stating that

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close will not disappoint the expectation created by Everything

is Illuminated, Bissel also makes a social commentary that Foer will be both championed
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and attacked for choosing to write his follow-up novel about the New York City 9/11

Attacks, still a pit of raw emotions for many Americans.

Considering the overall content of Wet Asphalt, Bissell’s critique of Foer’s Extremely

Loud & Incredibly Close appeared to be in congruency both to the literacy and educational

expectations of the blog’s content and target audience. Additionally, I sensed a tone of

integrity and impartiality in Bissell’s work which Rosenfield and Quackenbush do not

necessarily mirror throughout the website. Wet Asphalt appears to render more of a

personal than a literary tone in that Rosenfield and Quackenbush, overtaken by a sense of

narcissistic arrogance, claim the blog to be a place where readers “can reliably find

recommendations and criticism from people who understand that good books of all genres

are simultaneously entertaining and enlightening.” This assertion made question once

again how Rosenfield and Quackenbush manage dissent. Like in the plot of its

homonymous predecessor, in Wet Asphalt, the website, who is actually saying what and is

true or not?