"A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it".
Samuel Johnson
This seems to me to be a bit like a work of art - where the conversation begins with the artist; and the viewer responds.
From what Samuel Johnson suggests, it as if there is a book, and then it branches out each time a reader reads it, because they bring themselves and their experiences to it. And so, in a way the book has a slightly different ending, or a slightly different middle or few chapters for each person as they will read it slightly differently.
Perhaps, in doing so, they enable a more fulsome telling of the book.
I quite like the notion of the writer beginning, and the reader completing.
A huge tree in NZ's North Island, branching to the sky...
Samuel Johnson
This seems to me to be a bit like a work of art - where the conversation begins with the artist; and the viewer responds.
From what Samuel Johnson suggests, it as if there is a book, and then it branches out each time a reader reads it, because they bring themselves and their experiences to it. And so, in a way the book has a slightly different ending, or a slightly different middle or few chapters for each person as they will read it slightly differently.
Perhaps, in doing so, they enable a more fulsome telling of the book.
I quite like the notion of the writer beginning, and the reader completing.
A huge tree in NZ's North Island, branching to the sky...
I am rereading Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse a book that transformed my life when I was 18 and has reassessed my soul with it's shapeshifting magic becoming a different story with every reading through the decades.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds profound Mo - what an impact it has had; and how important the re-visiting...go well.
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