Through the Creative Eye

"One must be an inventor to read well. ...There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book we read becomes luminous with manifold allusion."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The American Scholar"

The American Heritage Dictionary Online gives the following definition for inventor:

1. To produce or contrive (something previously unknown) by the use of ingenuity or imagination.

2. To make up; fabricate

Traditionally, the writers are the inventors... the authors fabricate the stories from unknown times, the authors pen the profound ideas that the "common man" only glimpses from time to time. The author is the creative one.

Emerson, in his commentary on reading in "The American Scholar," often seems quite suspect of reading. Even though he says it is necessary, he also says that it can become a problem when the reader begins to imitate others. Similarly, when you read, someone else's imagination is in control of your own... Emerson therefore struggles to find a good place for reading. And yet in this passage, Emerson again brings up the subject, putting a positive spin on the act so that the reader is using his or her imagination and not allowing another's thoughts to overtake his or her own.

I would like to take a few minutes to explore this "phenomenon," if you will allow me to call it that. We've heard of creative writing, creative thinking... but creative reading? I think we all have done this in some way, whether we knew we were doing it or not. If we follow Emerson's logic of thinking, it means that while reading, we are not taking everything we read at face value, but instead also analyzing, synthesizing, piecing together, questioning. For instance, when I read "The American Scholar," I read it critically, not wanting to agree with him just because he is the famed Ralph Waldo Emerson. I wanted to take what he said and mull over it in my mind, weigh what he said and take what I felt was truth from it (which could lead to questions over the truth of literature: can literature be only part truth? any truth at all? only truth?). And I think as readers, and especially English majors, we are trained to read this way.

But being an inventor when we read? That I am not so sure of. How can we invent... the author has already "invented" his words and ideas, so how can we further invent upon them? We can read and weigh them, see if we agree or disagree. We can even read between the lines (is this inventing, or just getting at hidden meanings that the author purposely put there through his word choices??). But to invent, to "produce or contrive (something previously unknown) by the use of ingenuity or imagination," or to "fabricate"... can that actually be done through reading? How can we contrive something previously unknown? Again, I don't really know the answer to this, but I would appreciate any thoughts you have on the matter.

And I want to bring up one more thing... the Bible. Revelation 22:18-19 says, "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book." Now, if Emerson calls us to be inventors, how do we reconcile that with this verse? We are not called to invent God's word. I do believe we are meant to read between the lines, but is that in any way "inventing" meaning? Yes, we can creatively read, as each time we pick up the Bible, new meanings can come to us and meet us where we are. But where do we draw the line? When does inventing become desecrating the Word of God with our fallible humanity?

Just some thoughts to ponder for the evening...