Reading and storytelling.

Abstract

Stories are told all over the world today, whether it be through books, or through conversations with other people. This essay puts forth the argument that the story, as we understand it, is simply something told in conversation. Every Author has something he or she wants to communicate to an audience; namely the Reader. The Reader can also communicate back, in terms of his or her own comments. But when it comes to books, conversation in stories is mostly one-sided, because the Author has majority control of the text. The Reader can of course decide to show any displeasure at the text by simply closing the book and not reading it, but then he or she would be on the losing end. This essay looks at the amount of control both Reader and Author have over the text, and whether it is possible for the Reader to win the game. At the end of it, what the adventure that the Reader goes on does is to search and prove to himself or herself an individual identity that does not need to rely on a narrator to establish.