Question 4

The act of reading involves the utilization of imagination on the reader’s part in order to envision the writings of the author. Some authors address it as a “gap” between readers and writers, in which the reader must imagine certain aspects of the text that the writer has not explicitly described(and even if an aspect is described verbatim, people can have a distinct interpretation of a text), therefore leaving certain facets of the text up to the interpretation of the reader. This relationship between the reader and writer occurs because people will create mental images in order to process the phrasal information that they are reading. The writer uses his/her imagination to establish the story while the reader uses his/her imagination to envision it. In his book, Foster states, “We tend to give writers all the credit, but reading is also an event of the imagination; our creativity, our inventiveness, encounters those of the writer..”(114). This suggests that the readers have the ability to analyze and interpret the literature of which they are reading. Readers can and should search for parallels, references, and patterns within the text because it can add depth to the writing. An author’s work should have depth, imagination, and insight because it makes the experience much more enjoyable for their audience. Therefore, it would be beneficial for the author to add allusions, allegories, and references in their writings. Ultimately, imagination fuels the relationship between reader and writer. It's similar to the way in which abstract art is meant to be analyzed and deciphered by a viewer. Literature is in many ways an art form that requires insight and vision on both sides.