The great Marcel Proust describes his ideal relationship with his readers: "It seemed to me, that they would not be 'my' readers but readers of their own selves, my book being merely a sort of magnifying glance like those which the optician at Combray used to offer his customers - it would be my book but with it I would furnish them the means of reading what lay inside themselves. So that I would not ask them to praise me or to censure me, but simply to tell me whether 'it really is like that.' I should ask whether or not the words that they read within themselves are the same as those which I have written" (In Search of Lost Time).
We are all meaning makers, creators, fabricators. It's the job of the writer to recognize this and play with the notion.
"One must be an inventor to read well" (Emerson). With a clout on the head, the writer lets the reader invent and make the words his own.
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