Prompt #4 - relationships

This prompt is reminding us that each person will view a story differently based on the lens that they look through. Reading being an event of the imagination is why when I read the Dark Tower books, I always pictured Roland to look more like Clint Eastwood, but when the directors shot a film adaptation, he takes on another wholly different form. I’ve been in lots of classroom discussions and several people have said that when they read, it’s like watching a movie in their head. This is what the prompt means by “one creative intelligence against another creative intelligence.” What I thought, what my classmate thought, and what the author envisioned, may be three completely separate things, but because of the nature of literature, none of them is wrong, though I anticipate that the author’s interpretation would reign supreme assuming he were asked who should portray his character in film. Nevertheless, the process of reading and writing is open ended. As more readers join a community of fans, more interpretations become influenced by different cultures, creeds, and lenses until the author’s work is a guideline, and the community turns his or her story into their own living breathing world. 

Comments

  1. collindthomasJuly 16, 2017 at 12:07 PM

    Brooks, this is a great comprehension and summary of what Foster was trying to convey in his book by saying "All literature is a part of one big story." I think that Foster is right and has plenty of evidence to back up his claim, that all literature is connected and that not everyone views a certain book the same way. I like the modern and personal connection you used here when you talked about the Dark Tower book series. It is a perfect example of how someone can take an author's work and change it completely, to the point where the movie is not like the book at all. One little detail can change the whole story.

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  2. UnknownJuly 20, 2017 at 7:09 AM

    Thank you so much for this blog post, because I LOVE the fact you point out that everyone is going to have an image slightly different than that of a classmate when visualizing a character or aspect of a book in their head. We tend to take these descriptions and make connections based on our previous knowledge/experiences, which i think makes reading a more personal and intimate experience. Also, I think your statement about interpretations being influenced by different "cultures, creeds, and lenses" is one of the most important factors when looking at why/how a variety interpretations and ideas about a book came to be.

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  3. UnknownJuly 31, 2017 at 11:59 AM

    I think it is important to emphasize your point about the process being “open ended.” In many discussions, people forget that each person has led a different life with a range of life experiences and moral upbringings. Each point of view although different are not incorrect. What each person brings to an intellectual debate is important to the betterment of each individual involved. In literary discussions specifically, one person may have a wide knowledge of biblical text while the next know every sci-fi novel under the sun, but each viewpoint is important because each will have a better eye for those trends.

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  4. Carter NewmanAugust 1, 2017 at 8:27 PM

    I like that you included your personal interpretation of a character in a book, and then explained how it was completely different than the movie's representation of the character. This perfectly explains why many encourage the reading of a book before watching the movie adaptation, or solely reading the book and not being concerned with the movie. This is because the viewer's creative mind isn't being engaged when watching a movie, it is simply watching what another person has interpreted for them and created. This is not true of reading though, because it is up to the reader to use their creative mind to make the words on the page mean something to them, whether it be the meaning of life or their own visualization of a scene.

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