VL--IV Passivity, more active thoughts

[David Morris]

Of course an author expects the reader to think as opposed to being
led brain-dead by the nose.  What satisfaction would a reader get
without figuring out things not explicitly written.  But the reader
shouldn't have to try to fill in holes that the author hadn't thought
through previous to the reader's encounter with the text.

On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 10:04 AM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 1/6/09, malignd at aol.com <malignd at aol.com> wrote:
>>The novel, however, is not a  collaborative art form.
>
>
> William Gaddis famously said on numerous occasions that he expected
> his readers to bring something to a work--the writer is not supposed
> to explain everything, the reader must work out things for themselves
> (I think a character in JR says about the same in that novel).
> So, though I won't argue with you regarding Pynchon's flat
> characterizations, I would claim that novels that do not insult your
> intelligence, who do not feel the need to lay it all out, who trust
> their readers, is, in some certain sense, a collaborative effort.
> However, the artist must be able to concoct such a mixture that would
> lend itself to such personal discoveries by the reader. admittedly,
> not an easy thing to do
>
> Rich
>