In which the author gazes at her navel…
This might be a series of posts because I think I’ve accidentally stumbled onto something of a ‘deep’ topic. I recently released a book called ‘Over Loki’s Knee’. (This isn’t a book plug, seriously.) A reader asked why I’d called it that. Was it because I thought of my readers as being over my knee in some sense?
I replied vaguely, but mostly in the affirmative. After all, a book isn’t just some words on a page that people read and either find pleasing or displeasing – it is a means of connection. When you read these words, words that I have written, my voice speaks in your mind. If I write a top that makes you tingle or a brat that makes you want to giggle with glee, that is a collaboration between my mind and yours. The message and the reciever combine to create the experience. A reader coming to a story with a particular prejudice or interest is going to have a different experience from that of another reader with different interests and prejudices.
