An Event of the Imagination
June 18, 2011
We tend to give writers all the credit, but reading is also an event of the imagination; our creativity, our inventiveness, encounters that of the writer, and in that meeting we puzzle out what she means, what we understand her to mean, what uses we can put her writing to. Imagination isn’t fantasy. That is to say, we can’t simply invent meaning without the writer, or if we can, we ought not to hold her to it. Rather, a reader’s imagination is the act of one creative intelligence engaging another.
–How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Forster
10 Comments
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A Striped Armchair 
What a great quote!
Great picture, too!
That quote puts it perfectly. I think it is a mixed job of 50% writer and 50% reader and the best of both of those people understand that hahahaha.
Love the picture Eva ,all the best stu
A fantastic quote, and a great picture to keep it company, too!
This is a wonderful quote. I just read How to Read Literature Like a Professor and I can’t believe I missed copying this one down!
I love this quote. It explains my reading experience perfectly.
What a beautiful quote !! It’s nice to see reading considered an rt too, because much of a book’s success also depends on the redaer’s ability to imagine, visualize, extend, connect and empathize.
love this picture!
That’s right! We readers rock!