Does my reply here make sense?
Jul. 26th, 2005 06:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
I stand by it, but I'm not sure that it didn't suffer from haste....
Not that there isn't any point in listening to what the author says about his or her own work, of course. But... no matter what the author thinks is there or isn't there, people will see all sorts of things. Humans are good at seeing patterns, and shapes, and fitting words into what's already in their heads. I could sit and curse this tendancy, or I can smile and say that we're all better off for a little diversity in our reading experience.
Consider that. You hear a story three times, and each time it's a different story because, although the words haven't changed, you have changed. Isn't that better than hearing a story twenty times, but it's always exactly the same, thought after plodding thought?
Not that there isn't any point in listening to what the author says about his or her own work, of course. But... no matter what the author thinks is there or isn't there, people will see all sorts of things. Humans are good at seeing patterns, and shapes, and fitting words into what's already in their heads. I could sit and curse this tendancy, or I can smile and say that we're all better off for a little diversity in our reading experience.
Consider that. You hear a story three times, and each time it's a different story because, although the words haven't changed, you have changed. Isn't that better than hearing a story twenty times, but it's always exactly the same, thought after plodding thought?
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-26 09:38 pm (UTC)