Musing upon Kim
McDougall’s video for NO MARRIAGES IN HEAVEN, I reflected upon her photo of a
gray-haired man as Dr. Fell—evidently the best photo she had to represent the black-haired character--and decided the man in the picture could well represent my
character. However, as I was writing the
novel, my imagination fastened upon actor Victor Jory’s portrayal of the
villainous Jeb Torrance in THE FUGITIVE KIND (a 1960 adaption of Tennessee
Williams’ play ORPHEUS DESCENDING). I
also reflected that readers who had not seen the film or do not remember Jory,
or even those who do, would have a somewhat different image of Dr. Fell, none
really “more correct” than the others.
In other words in reading, we allow our imaginations leeway in responding
to the author’s words, so that none of us pictures the same Macbeth. Here we have another way authors and readers
become collaborators. British critic John Carey provides a fine discussion of
this aspect of reading in his book WHAT GOOD ARE THE ARTS?
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