Hey, peaches! *user waves* It's possible, but I'd say it goes a bit further than astigmatism. LOL We're talking big, honking factual errors. Conflating the Vanyr and Chosen, for example. (Don would soooooo love to be Vanyr, but it ain't a happening thing in this or any other universe. *snerk*) Leitmotifs are another matter. I expect perception distortion in in the interpretation of story elements and themes, regardless of how many times people read the book. Heck, I'm sure I'm not seeing the forest for the trees myself, and I co-wrote it. Though I suspect you're right; there will be more distortions of every type on the first run-through. Ideally, people are reading too fast the first time, because they're caught in the story and not worrying about its underpinnings. Admittedly, I'm probably more sensitive to the mistakes because it's my baby. But I was a stickler for review accuracy at CB--even going so far as to rewrite passages with errors in fact. Never wrote a review without a copy of the book at hand to check all my assertions. But I'm sure I got it wrong, too, on occasion. And I'm sure not going to complain. :D Hugs,
Re: Getting it wrong
It's possible, but I'd say it goes a bit further than astigmatism. LOL We're talking big, honking factual errors. Conflating the Vanyr and Chosen, for example. (Don would soooooo love to be Vanyr, but it ain't a happening thing in this or any other universe. *snerk*)
Leitmotifs are another matter. I expect perception distortion in in the interpretation of story elements and themes, regardless of how many times people read the book. Heck, I'm sure I'm not seeing the forest for the trees myself, and I co-wrote it. Though I suspect you're right; there will be more distortions of every type on the first run-through. Ideally, people are reading too fast the first time, because they're caught in the story and not worrying about its underpinnings.
Admittedly, I'm probably more sensitive to the mistakes because it's my baby. But I was a stickler for review accuracy at CB--even going so far as to rewrite passages with errors in fact. Never wrote a review without a copy of the book at hand to check all my assertions. But I'm sure I got it wrong, too, on occasion. And I'm sure not going to complain. :D
Hugs,