A Swim in a Pond in the Rain - 2

A Swim completed in an enchanting pond. A finale of a memorable swim in the pond that is equally wonderful and exciting.

What is a writer doing and how a reader receiving it?

"The writer and the reader stand at either end of a pond. The writer drops a pebble in and the ripples reach the reader. The writer stands there, imagining the way the reader is receiving those ripples, by way of deciding which pebble to drop in next.

Meanwhile, the reader receives those ripples and, somehow, they speak to her. In other words, they’re in connection.

These days, it’s easy to feel that we’ve fallen out of connection with one another and with the earth and with reason and with love. I mean, we have. But to read, to write, is to say that we still believe in, at least, the possibility of connection. When reading and writing, we feel connection happening (or not). That’s the essence of these activities: ascertaining whether connection is happening, and where, and why.

These two people, in those postures, across that pond, are doing essential work. This is not a hobby, pastime, or indulgence. By their mutual belief in connection, they’re making the world better, by making it (at least between the two of them, in that small moment) more friendly."

Why do we read? Often we face a question that why we read. I remember while summing up our reading catalogues every year for pustakam.net, some of us used to indicate that we read and list them only for the sake of our own pleasure, because we find peace and satisfaction in reading.

Saunders put it out so beautifully.

"And let’s be even more honest: those of us who read and write do it because we love it and because doing it makes us feel more alive and we would likely keep doing it even if it could be demonstrated that its overall net effect was zero, and I, for one, have a feeling that I would keep doing it even if it could be demonstrated that its overall net effect was negative."

Why should we even read a fiction? Many times we were asked this question and of course, we all have our own justification for either doing it or not. Here is what Saunders had to say.

"So, trying to stay perfectly honest, let’s go ahead and ask, diagnostically: What is it, exactly, that fiction does?

Well, that’s the question we’ve been asking all along, as we’ve been watching our minds read these Russian stories. We’ve been comparing the pre-reading state of our minds to the post-reading state. And that’s what fiction does: it causes an incremental change in the state of a mind. That’s it. But, you know—it really does it. That change is finite but real. And that’s not nothing. It’s not everything, but it’s not nothing." 

Finally, about the beautiful relation between the writer and a reader …

"There are many versions of you, in you. To which one am I speaking, when I write? The best one. The one most like my best one. Those two best versions of us, in a moment of reading, exit our usual selves and, at a location created by mutual respect, become one. 

That’s a pretty hopeful model of human interaction: two people, mutually respectful, leaning in, one speaking so as to compel, the other listening, willing to be charmed."

 It had been a beautiful journey along with Saunders. I Just can't thank enough my FB friend Ramana Murthy garu for recommending this book.

Ramana Murthy garu already influenced me and may be few others to read this book through his introduction on Saranga magazine  కథల కొలనులో విహారం . Now I am recommending again if you haven't got to this yet, please do yourself a favor. You will be enriched tremendously. Anyone loves books/reading should read and own this treasure.