Response to prompt #4

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?

When reading, an individual will begin to visualize what they are reading. What they see all varies and depends on the reader. This occurs because naturally it helps the reader come to a better understanding of what the text is about. When you are able to visualize, it draws you in and helps you to read more intellectually. This is overall the best way to read, with an open mind, and letting your imagination flow because it makes the reading experience overall more efficient.

Blog Response to Prompt #4

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?

When an author creates a story it is their own personal experiences and thoughts poured out onto a page generating a story filled with the writer’s own imagination. This imagination that Foster refers to facilitates the interaction between the writer and the reader’s thoughts mixed with the writer’s intent. How to break this process down into simpler terms would be as described as a conversation while having to pick up on someone’s body language. There is a form of underlying communication that comes from the way people use expressions and motions this concept can be translated to be thought of as the writer’s symbolism in the text. In many cases people in conversations are better than others at picking up on these signals but that doesn’t mean they still can’t understand the intended message. The writer and the reader are in this situation of trying to convey thoughts through pages which can be confusing for both parties involved. This idea suggests that interpreting others creative thoughts can be difficult depending upon their own life experiences and personal thoughts.

Foster uses an analogy early on in the book to describe how texts intertwine with each other by explaining how they are like eels swimming around in a barrel. He uses this to describe how stories are similar to one another but I think this also goes for showing how the author’s thoughts intertwine with the reader’s creative thoughts as well. Both factors create a story that is personal. The act of reading isn’t something that can ever be generic or standardized. Even with the simplest of stories people will still paint different mental images of characters and plot lines. The interaction between the author and the reader is something that is different for everyone and cannot be containerized to fit on kind of interpretation which is one of the biggest tings to remember when discussing Foster’s description of the interaction between author and reader.

Blog Response to Prompt #2 (Wood)

Foster’s statement that “all writing and telling belong to one big story” can be interpreted as having two meanings. The first is literal, a play on the saying “once you’ve read the dictionary, everything else is just a remix,” meaning every book is a new selection from, and ordering of, the same set of concepts predefined by the parameters of human communication. The second, Foster’s main point, is more figurative and implies that all stories, even those that are purely fictional, showcase some aspect of the human experience and are therefore all connected under the umbrella of the human condition. As such, phrases, themes, character types, scenarios, and plot points carrying the same meanings and/or implications often carry across different stories. This can range from intentional references to universal concepts. This view of reading materials as pieces of a massive literary puzzle enhances the reading experience by allowing it to develop from an intellectually passive activity of simply sitting back and reading the words at face value to an intellectually active pastime of connecting the elements of the current text to elements of previous texts to better understand the “one big story.”

 An example of the more direct, intentional connections can be seen with the book and hit musical “Wicked,” which works to directly build off of “The Wizard of Oz,” taking the flat characters of the previous text, such as the purely and inexplicably evil witch, and exploring their humanity. Less direct correlations can be seen in the classic Disney princess stories. Whether it’s Snow White or Cinderella,the character formula is the same: threatening, wicked step mother; innocent, beautiful princess; and the dashing prince that sweeps her off her feet. This formula doesn’t just work for princesses though, take Harry Potter: innocent and (internally) beautiful, he serves as the princess of his story, trapped in the custody of the threatening, wicked Dursleys, until one day his prince (in this case, gruff half-giant, Hagrid) quite literally sweeps him off his feet and into the world of magic. 

Blog Response to Prompt #4 (Wood)

When an author creates a text, he or she takes images, sounds, feelings, smells, etc. from his or her imagination and describes them for the reader. The reader then takes the descriptions from the author and recreates said sensations for his or her self. Say for example, I, as an author, wrote this description for a minor character: a young girl with strawberry blonde hair and freckles in an oversized college sweatshirt. From there, it’s your responsibility as the reader to fill in the details. What exactly does her face look like? Her body shape? Her eyes? What does her voice sound like? How does she walk? These are questions that no author can fully answer in words, the reader simply has to use his or herimagination to turn the phrases into characters (or places or items for that matter). The result being that each reader’s mental image of any given character will not look exactly the same as the author’s or any other reader’s. What this implies is that the reading process is highly subjective. That it is not only shaped by the author’s words, but by the reader’s previous knowledge and experiences. For example, the earlier description of the young girl with the strawberry blonde hair perfectly matches my best friend, so when I read that description, I see her. Another reader might see a beloved actress, an old elementary school bully, or a completely unfamiliar face. This not only affects the visual depiction of the characters, but how the reader experiences the charactersas a whole. If I picture a character as identical to my best friend, I am predisposed to like the character. So if the plot takes a completely unforeseen turn and she turns out to be a vicious, baby-eating monster, I’m going to be a lot more distraught than the person who saw a carbon copy of their elementary school bully. If I saw the character as beloved actress and another wildly different looking actress plays her in the movie, I’m going to be hard-pressed to enjoy the movie the way I did the book. Thus the work done by the reader to visualize text results in its own unique story different from any other readers’. 

Blog Response to Prompt #5

5.    After studying Foster, what ideas about the process, the experience, and the purposes of reading seem significant?  What are the philosophical underpinnings of his book about books?  What does it mean to be literate?  What does it mean to read?  How does this relate to “being human?”  What will you carry with you from this book? 

Foster’s outlook on reading is more complex than just simply scanning a page as you can tell after reading even a small bit of his book. Reading is a process of communication between the author’s ideas and the reader’s interpretation of them. The process of reading is something that cannot be generalized for one type of person.  Some people pick up on symbolism while others interpret the author’s intent completely differently; this concept allows reading to become personal and individualized.  Some concepts he explains in his book that will remain significant to me as I continue on in my reading journey would be his emphasis on how analyzing literature takes lots and lots of practice.  Throughout his book he develops this concept that there is depth to everything we read, sometimes we may not even understand it. No matter if we understand the reference or not we can understand and appreciate the intent. This book about books is about learning how to practice techniques to improve your deeper reading skills. The whole purpose of this book is to give you the tips and instruction on what to look for when reading but it doesn’t matter if you don’t out these methods into practice. As I go into AP Lit this year I will try my best to practice Foster’s methodology when it comes to analyzing literature.  I will take with me his concepts of how stories are all intertwining with one another even if the writer intends for it to be this way or not. Foster’s book has taught me many lessons on how to develop my analyzing skills and I learned a lot from his many examples of texts working within on another.

Prompt #7

7. Where or how does ambiguity come into play in a reader’s experience? How might ambiguity work within a piece of literature (or art of any kind?) How does it impact our understanding, and appreciation of a text?

Ambiguity is essential when reading literature. It completely determines whether we understand the text, or miss the point of it completely. You must read with an open mind, and disregard all previous opinions, or personal experiences that have led you to have specific thought processes. Everyone Has different viewpoints and if you don’t put yourself in the mind of the author, you won’t be able to understand it the way you should. It adds much more value to the book that is necessary when you go into it with an open mind.

Blog Response to Prompt #1

1.    Foster says that “reading literature is a highly intellectual activity.”  He discusses the “language of reading” and the “grammar of literature.”  What does he mean by these things and why are they important for the kind of reading he is discussing in this book?  How is this kind of reading different from purely “affective” reading? What is the true value of “reading like a professor” according to Foster?  Be sure to use textual evidence to support your answer

When Foster talks about reading being a “highly intellectual activity” he is referring to the fact that readers have to look deeper than just the words while reading a text. Reader’s ust look deeper and understand the “language of the text,” such as the symbols the author is using and the paralls they are trying to make. Understanding these things is important because once the reader understands the “language” they can begin looking at the text as more than just words and begin to look at the deeper, more intellectual meaning that the author is trying to get through to the readers. Once the reader can do this it can change the way the readers view the text and may even make reading more enjoyable because the readers can understand what the author is trying to say.