Prompt 4- Relationship Between Writer and Reader


A unique feature of writing is its constant openness for interpretation. No author can guarantee a specific reaction or lesson from reading their work, for the reason of humans having different life experiences. After reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor, I have learned of strategies a reader may utilize if they wish to further understand the meaning behind a story, however as Foster writes, “We bring an individual history to our reading” ( Foster 110). It is common for me to morph characters, ever so slightly, to be who I think I am or who I want to be. If I do not see myself, I often see my mom, or if presented with a home setting, the house I grew up in. Finding a relatable or recognizable component is key to the success of the reader as well as the author. Although an author can only take you so far, at some point it is the reader who must include a bit of imagination to recognize connections with previously read works or life in general, they must understand the mechanics of memories. By introducing a lost couple who have “taken a wrong turn” (Foster 56) or beginning a story on “a dark and stormy night” (Foster 69) writers are building a familiar or relatable foundation, presenting readers with the opportunity to enrich their understanding of the story using more personal details.
Mary Madeline Gould

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 11, 2017 at 1:03 PM

    Your point of view is extremely relatable, which is ironic considering the topic of the writing. This could be used to prove that individuals, who are unable to visualize scenes or character descriptions are less likely to enjoy detailed texts. Therefore, some people believe that movies are better than books, and vice versa. Movies present the audience with a similar opportunity to enrich their experience by providing them with what the author intended for the text to look like. However, those who read the text and created a personal depiction can be agitated by an alternate version to their imagination.

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  2. UnknownJuly 13, 2017 at 8:35 AM

    This blog has a fantastic point on the whole perspective between readers and writers, you've gone and stated the many relatable occurrences between the story and the reader's personal experiences. With you, the idea that people won't always find a reference is just what some readers need to understand whenever they get stuck in a story and the use of imagination as you had explained is a surefire way to help in this given situation. About every event given in a story could be in reference to a real life occurrence as much as it could hit home for people on a personal level and that is what makes reading an emotional journey for most people.

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  3. UnknownJuly 31, 2017 at 7:54 PM

    One author can change the whole perspective of a reader, so a reader being able to connect with a text opens a world of intertextuality to where they can connect to other art forms other than literature. I never thought about it in this way, by how much a book can make one perceive their own lives and how we even connect art with our own lives and make us perceive a book differently because of personal inferences. It's another way for an artist to perceive an author's work in their own way so that they are able to create an art form from something previous.

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