Reading Response

Percey Bysshe Shelley, author of, "A Defence of Poetry," defends Joe Wenderoth's piece "Letters to Wendys". Shelley mentions in her piece, "Reason is the enumeration of qualities already known; imagination is the perception of the value of those qualities, both separately and as a whole," which applies directly to Wenderoth's writings. In "Letters to Wendys" he writes from the first person perspective every single day from a year. He brings his readers to a normal place, a place that we as American's have become very familiar with; having all eatten in the fast food nation. However, not only does he take us all to a common ground, he turns the normal view of things and sees something else; he sees this imaginary world within Wendys. He sees Wendy as a little girl whose common to life. He sees Wendy living with him in many sexual fantasies. He sees things that we ourselves have never seen. And this is exactly what Shelley says is the difference between reasoning and imagination. It is the state of mind that turns reality into fantasy, it is the transition from real to imagination.