Active Being

This is my response to something Paul posted on his site about a Kurt Vonnegut article. I encourage active reading of his website.

"Fascinating! I haven't read Noam's article yet, but I will. Vintage Vonnegut. The poor guy's right. Partially wrong, though, I think. Well, not exactly wrong, but a bit pessimistic (as if I couldn't see that coming from him).

I'll explain myself. I believe his analogy between proper reading and going to a concert and being handed your own violin is accurate and poignant. And the problem with many readers today is that they don't know how to play. The reader is as important to reading as the writer. Sometimes more, I believe. But I think his article is incorrect in its assumption that no knowledge is needed for proper understanding of stories through film.

You can read stories without understanding them, just as you can play a violin without knowing how: poorly. But it can be done. The very same is true with watching film. The problem is never the medium qua medium, always the "mediee" qua complete and utter idiotic human being.

I don't know, what's the word for a person who receives "stuff" through a medium? "