Quote Response:
"Most people sensibly assume that writng is propaganda" John Updike, from Writers on Writing.
The author opens a critique, with this quote, on the expected insight into an authors personal thought process, or interpertation of their work by readers. In a rambling parable he asks the real question which is why do you write.
When I read the fables and short stories I experianced the same emotions thousands of others who had read these stories before me had experianced themselves. Then I read John Updikes A & P and the stark reality of the writing was just another emotion. In all of these writngs this was the propaganda. From the stated moral of a fable or the hidden meaning of a parable or the extended message of a short story it is always the same, the writer is just propagandizing his emotions.
So I asked myself "why do I write?" The irony of this commentary by John Updike is that in the end he turns the questions of the reader back on themselves by writing in a somewhat confusing manner forcing the reader to ask "What was he thinking?