When a character in a novel or even a memoir thinks as I think, behaves as I behave, acts as I act, it doesn’t stop me short or amaze me. I just barrel along with my reading and don’t give it another thought; the story is all. But when a critic does that—articulates my own feelings or responses—it has always jostled me, excited me, moved me. Probably because critic and reader share the same experience. They (we) watch the same movie, read the same book. The frame of reference and the landscape are entirely shared. That knowledge of shared experience has always made reading criticism an
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