“Kurt Vonnegut once described literature as the only art in which the audience plays the score, and if that’s a bit of a throwaway, it’s also astute. Reading is an act of contemplation, perhaps the only act in which we allow ourselves to merge with the consciousness of another being.”
— David Ulin, The Lost Art of Reading
A while back I saw Ulin (former editor and now book critic of the L.A. Times) interviewed in San Diego. He mentioned the Vonnegut quote.
I’ve thought about the important/vital role of the reader in literature, but the idea of the reader “playing the score” really struck me.
It’s true. Books bring so much to us, but we (as readers) also bring so much to them.