“But to demand that a work be “relatable” expresses a different expectation: that the work itself be somehow accommodating to, or reflective of, the experience of the reader or viewer. The reader or viewer remains passive in the face of the book or movie or play: she expects the work to be done for her. If the concept of identification suggested that an individual experiences a work as a mirror in which he might recognize himself, the notion of relatability implies that the work in question serves like a selfie: a flattering confirmation of an individual's solipsism.” IfsBookDifferentDonePlayMightFacesIndividualReaderDemandExpectationsConceptsMirrorsRemainsNotionPassiveViewersRelatableFlatteringIdentificationConfirmationWork To Be DoneSolipsismRelatability Author:Rebecca Mead
“With a single drop of ink for a mirror, the Egyptian sorcerer undertakes to reveal to any chance comer far-reaching visions of the past. This is what I undertake to do for you, reader.” BookPastChanceVisionReaderMirrorsReachingInkEgyptian Book:Adam Bede Source: Adam Bede
“Auden, who asked two things of an imagined world-that it be somehow like ours and somehow unlike-would be Ben Marcus's ideal reader, yet even without the poet's dire program, I am altogether taken by this hilarious and sexy alternative universe. Just imagine! it is all done with words instead of mirrors, so much more reliable and so much more heartbreaking. Thus Prospero enthralls his crew.” WorldTwoDoneWould BeUniverseTakenImaginePoetReaderIdealsProgramMirrorsSexyAlternativesTwo ThingsCrewHeartbreakingAudenProspero Author:Richard Howard
“The term "bend sinister" means a heraldic bar or band drawn from the left side (and popularly, but incorrectly, supposed to denote bastardy). This choice of title was an attempt to suggest an outline broken by refraction, a distortion in the mirror of being, a wrong turn taken by life, a sinistral and sinister world. The title's drawback is that a solemn reader looking for "general ideas" or "human interest" (which is much the same thing) in a novel may be led to look for them in this one.” WorldHumansLooksMayMeanIdeasTurnsChoicesLeftSidesTermInterestNovelTakenBrokenReaderBandMirrorsBarsTitlesSolemnOutlinesDistortionSinisterDrawbacksWrong Turn Author:Vladimir Nabokov
“My own sense of the world is that very little is absolute or black and white or easily understood. I suppose in all my writing I'm trying to cast the reader into this spiritually ambivalent dream world, which hopefully mirrors more honestly the complex reality we find ourselves in.” WorldWritingTryingLittlesDreamRealityBlackMy OwnWhiteReaderUnderstoodAbsolutesMirrorsComplexesCastsHonestlyHopefullyBlack And WhiteDream WorldAmbivalent Author:Andre Dubus
“Do not tell me what to do, tell me what you do. Do not tell me what is good for me, tell me what is good for you. If, at the same time, you reveal the you in me, if you become a mirror to my inner self, then you have made a reader and a friend.” IfsMadeSelfReaderMirrorsInner Self Author:George A. Sheehan
“I think music, like writing, can be a mirror. Can turn back onto the listener, the viewer, the reader, an experience that they know but they don't know.” ThinkingKnowsWritingTurnsReaderMirrorsListenersViewers Author:Claudia Rankine
“Mirror the reader to himself and then show him afterward how your product fits his needs.” NeedsShowsProductsReaderFitMirrors Author:Raymond Rubicam