Bird, J. - Question 4

When Foster reaches the conclusive statement that "a reader’s imagination is the act of one creative intelligence engaging another (the writer’s)," he first observes that his approach to any piece of literature or text is from a historical point of view based on his own education, knowledge, and experience. Therefore, the information and wisdom he obtains from the text is heavily influenced by his perception of that education, knowledge, and experience. His own imagination creates ideas about the symbolistic intentions of the author that vary from those that may be approaching the text with different cultural, educational, and life experiences. This does not make their perception and insight on the text any less valuable or true. Instead, it opens up opportunities outside of the text for readers in classes, groups, or day to day conversations to enlighten one another on their own ideas as to what the the author was saying and what the author intended for the reader to hear. Foster claims that a frequent question he has been asked in his time as a professor is "Does this mean something?". Of course, he cannot provide a definitive answer, and instead tells his students that if they think a quote, word, or plot point has a meaning, then there is no doubt that it has some sort of significance to that student, though it may not to another student reading the same book. This suggests that throughout the writing process the author has no intention to connect with every personal background and story. Instead, they write of life the way they see it and end up speaking differently to each reader. This only goes to show that readers and writers have a distant and intellectual relationship just because of their experience living life. Foster says that there are no new stories. And this is the same for stories of real people. The author's own life is not entirely new and original. They express, wether intentionally or unintentionally, aspects of that life in their reading. And because their story is not completely new, readers who share continuations, variations, and aspects of that story relate to the author's text in way that are new and imaginative with each read.