Blog Response to Prompt #4

Foster talks about the relationship between the reader and the writer suggesting that, “reading is an event of the imagination…a reader’s imagination is the act of one creative intelligence engaging another (the writer’s). How does this occur? What does this suggest about the nature and process of reading and writing?




The idea of a reader interacting with a writing really occurs when a reader is attempting to understand and delve deeper into something the writer has written such as a symbol. When a writer writes something that a reader is trying to understand, it often does not happen in an instant, it is a process. A reader often times forced to use abstract thinking because of the writer’s doing. When a writer presents an idea, readers are constantly trying to interpret what this writer has presented. Fosters says that when trying to understand something a reader should, “Associate freely, brainstorm, take notes” (113). And most importantly, a reader has to ask questions. When a reader does all of this, he or she is not only trying to understand the words in front of them, but they are trying to understand the author and what they make or may not have been thinking and trying to convey. Readers are often times expected to step out of their own shoes and step into the writer’s. It is obvious that the nature of the processes of both reading and writing go hand in hand. Writers come up with great pieces of work containing many ideas, concepts and symbols for readers to pick apart, explore, and question. Both parties are engaged and constantly being challenged to understand and question what the other is thinking. Writers have to consider how a reader may or may not think and a reader must do the same. This creates a constant cycle of creation, questions, interpretations.