Prompt #4


As Thomas C. Foster once claimed, “reading is an event of the imagination… a reader’s imagination is the act of one creative intelligence engaging another.” Imagination in writing occurs when the author sets the tone, describes the setting, introduces the characters, or displays the plot. The reader can picture what they what in their mind. When the author describes a character, the reader comprehends the different aspects of their look and style provided for them, and creates a visual in their head to think of when that person is brought back onto the pages of the book. Foster informs the reader to, “engage that other creative intelligence. Listen to your instincts. Pay attention to what you feel about the text. It probably means something” (Foster 114). Foster is correct when he says that because the way you picture the images behind the texts, will affect the way you remember and interpret what is given to you. It’s all about how you picture a book and how it is significant to you that makes you successfully understand the text in your own personal way. There is never a correct meaning behind readings to where someone is wrong. That is what is so important about imagination. When reading about an author’s imagination, you receive insight on how they are interpreting the same piece of writing you are at the same time. Life is full of imagination, and when you settle down with a book, that is when imagination truly comes to life.
Brenlin Van Camp

Comments

  1. Mrs. MacJuly 17, 2017 at 4:07 AM

    Yes, I agree with you that imagination is so important. Foster says it, Nabokov will say it in an article we will read. I also agree that readers bring much to a text--their life experiences, realities, understandings. Therefore, text can and must be able to mean a variety of things--there must be flexibility. However, I do not think a text can ever just mean anything. I think there are ranges of meaning it can support. I think we have to find ourselves somewhere within that range of possible meanings.
    Mrs. Mac

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  2. UnknownJuly 31, 2017 at 10:08 PM

    Everyone interprets texts differently so there is always a different perception of a certain book. That's why people are able to discuss these different perceptions and people are able to create an art form from their own perception. With these perceptions come different forms of imagination. The imagination is what creates all new art forms and causes intertextuality between different art forms. "Listen to your instincts." This is a technique of a skilled reader because they trust the way they interpret the way authors perceived the art they created. All those "possible meanings" are interpretations of different art forms and without these we wouldn't even have certain types of art.

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