people often talk of escapism with regard to literature, when in actual fact they are only verbalizing the particular experience they have undergone. (140)Iser believes that the building of the mental image is the key action required to fully allow the reader to be detached from the reading and be able to watch the experience as it occurs.Unfortunately, in The Act of Reading, the mental images are being described to the reader, for the reader is being told how to perceive what is being read. To further complicate matters, Iser quotes many authors and philosophers, such as Jean Paul Sartre, Edmund Husserl, C.S. Lewis, and even Sigmund Freud, in an attempt to prove his point to the reader. What results from the massive amounts of quotes and references is that the reader is being the mental images of the some of the greatest minds, both past and present, in the world. The mental images that the reader is supposed to construct without outside guidance are actually provided to the reader in detail, going completely against Iser’s own beliefs. The concept of detachment is further developed towards the end of the text, when the idea of negation is brought into the picture. Iser believes that the interaction that causes the new experience that the reader is being exposed to can only truly come about when the reader chooses to ignore the life story of the author and the prior experiences and opinions of the reader. The only way for text to be filled with meaning is for no part of the text to already be filled by prior dispositions of either the author or reader. It is theorized that negation will heighten the reader’s awareness of what is being experienced without providing any biases that could corrupt the experience.The Act of Reading, while not being based on the author’s life story, is based on one of the author’s theories for life. Due to the fact that the book seeks to persuade the reader into adopting the ...
