[same reader, different readings]

Heheh, I've just seen the words 'JKR is god' used (mockingly) in a sentence, and I wonder.... Because while I don't believe in any Author really holding power over what I think in most circumstances, the very act of reading seems to be a temporary relinquishing of that sort of power, at its heart. If it doesn't work, that's when I start to feel... bereft. Empty. Like it's only words; only stupid shadows on the wall.

I think I have a very close relationship to most books I really love (or enjoy being a Reader of), in the sense that I pay as much attention to them as possible. If I love it, I will notice a million little details about it, and I'll try to see what's 'really there' without even thinking about it-- I read carefully if I really read; I get lost in the world of the story, stop to look at the sights, allow myself to believe all manner of impossible, fantastical things. And that's what I love about reading fantasy especially-- letting go and flowing, allowing the writer to make me think 'yes, unicorns exist' while I'm reading.

So in this sense, the Author is god, because they do recreate the world in any shape they want, as long as they're good at it.

( And we all know a god is as a little god does! ....or something. )

~~

    Semi-randomly, I find I'm really bitter about people seemingly not wanting to think too hard when they read; I realize this is very hypocritical of me, but then I don't have to think consciously (I just tend to understand most things well enough anyway).
    Then again, every time someone says a story was 'confusing', I sort of twitch, 'cause people've said it so often to me. I'm apt to blame myself; it's not that -expect- people to think about what they read or anything, but I can be susceptible to the 'but it's so obvious!' thing as much as anyone. I really wonder how most other people read, though: do they really filter everything through their lenses of what 'works' and what doesn't, what makes sense in their own context and what seems too weird and unexpected and is therefore confusing & somehow wrong?

Well, I mean, I'm very rarely confused by pretty much anything in a story, unless it's just phrased weirdly and I need to think just to figure out what the author is saying; I don't tend to find I -need- to think (confusedly or not)-- I just... well, I understand, and that's good enough to react with. Not that I'm claiming I'm -right-, just... it works for me in my head, and that's what counts. If it doesn't, I think the fic's bad, not 'confusing'. I have a feeling I'm admitting to a fairly high degree of implicit arrogance with this, ahahah.

I suspect it all comes down to people having different goals in reading as in writing, especially in reading shipper-fic and/or fanfic romance. And of course there's no problem with this, it's fascinating, it's just that it makes me frustrated to be in a taste minority, I suppose. To put it plainly, I don't seem to like the things most people like in fiction, or at least I like them done differently or more complexly while still less so than the people who like things really complex (meaning, hey, I read fanfic, not War and Peace knock-offs). What am I even saying anymore? Hell if I know. But I am saying it! Yaye, etc.
~~

....And to think I wanted to write a ficlet where Harry ran into walls and/or wore panties on his head earlier today. I would've made it work somehow!

Possibly with ribbons. And glue. Glue has to be involved.

Also triples, references to Hana Barbera cartoons and polar bears. Randomness = love. That is all.