"Dying's just another way to leave the ones you love."

[greygirlbeast]

I don't write about my dreams much anymore. Frankly, after I began..well...the new drugs, back in 2010, things got better. Dreamsickness became almost a phenomenon of the past. But Lamictal can cause vivid dreams, and when I have to increase my dose - as I have to do every now and then - I get vivid dreams. Crazy vivid, like the old days. Dreams

Comments

[brendandetzner]

I've never studied theories of literary criticism aside from the quick trip around the internet to pick up the bare outlines of the theories you mentioned. They all seem fine right up to the point where they insist that theirs is the only approach that should ever be used, and seem really silly beyond that point. It seems like a worthwhile, interesting exercise when thinking about a book to just think about the effect it had on me, and to momentarily ignore when and where the book was written or what the author had in mind writing it. It also seems like you'd get something useful by limiting yourself to thinking only about what the author was trying to accomplish by writing it, or just thinking about a book in terms of it's relationship to the audience it was marketed to, or any number of other points of view.

But declaring that any of these is not only the most important but the only factor that should ever be considered is weird and scoldy. The author really did have something have something in mind when they wrote the book, the book really does exist in a historical context, and the book really does create reactions in the audience and in you personally that go beyond what the author necessarily was aiming at. You can't magic wand any of these things away and I'm not sure why you'd want to.

Seriously, it's not ethics. Do what you want. I feel bad for anyone not in a position to ignore these bizarre little cliques.