How Your Perception Creates Your World: Social Meaning and the Power of Mindful Consumption
What makes a great novel? Is it, as we generally assume, something about the novel itself, that it has been expertly crafted, that the language is transcendent, that the spirit of the characters seems to touch a deep human soul level?
Or, a possibility that we speak of less often, is the novel great because of the greatness of the reader? Does the reader bring a sense of greatness to the work and therefore does it take a great reader to ultimately create a great novel?
While reviews in the Sunday papers and the proliferation of literary criticism suggests we believe the former, I don’t think we need to completely discredit the significance of the latter, that is, the role that the quality of readership plays in shaping a novel.
We often talk about how the greatest novels pay dividends and give the reader more and more depth and insight each time they revisit them. What’s important to recognise here is that the novel isn’t hasn’t changed. It’s very rare that the text of a novel is actually changed after first publication, and these emendations are usually quite small and usually take place during the author’s lifetime. When we return to a novel, the only thing that has actually changed is the reader and what that reader brings with them.
