Question 4

The act of reading cannot be done without a writer and a reader; both roles play a necessary part in creating and understanding literature, especially when concerning the creativity surrounding the topic as a whole. As Foster states, “reading is an event of the imagination… a reader’s imagination is the act of one creative intelligence engaging another [the writer’s]” (114). How this works is that a writer lays the basis for imaginative thought with a book (or article, novel, essay, etc.), one that has enough detail for a complete plot to be played out but still leaves enough room for some reader interpretation. Then, a reader will take this foundation and add in their own ideas to fill any gaps that the writer left, thus causing an interaction between the two. For example, if a writer were to state the placement of green apples in a room, the reader may infer about the significance of such a detail and how this adds to the text. Looking at both the writer’s and the reader’s role in how they can affect literature, one can come to the conclusion that both parts are fluid. This means that no matter how descriptive an author makes their work, each reader will interpret the information differently, and therefore draw different conclusions. The same ideology applies to the author, because they will also have their own interpretation of the text that may be varying from their audience. Following the example from before, one reader may infer that the apples are symboling a surge of life (like how plants come back to life in the spring) while another reader believes that it shows an atmosphere of jealousy. No book is meant to have one sole purpose, readers are supposed to draw their own conclusions from the writer’s foundation, which is why this fluidity between the writer’s and reader’s thoughts is critical.