Literary experience is abstract
Even though readers often have specific, well-defined relationships to the characters, the experience they have is abstract, says Mendelsund. This is because it is often difficult for readers to identify with concrete details about a character. Rather, literature is about shaping the character so that the reader will identify with them, and then the character's experience is understood from the first person. So what is it exactly that a person learns by reading a novel they love? They see one possible experience, and they understand it abstractly.
The character evokes the reader's own mind
The author's task is to evoke the reader to fill in the gaps. Because human beings are all so epic and complex, it is typically the case that an author will write in a way that makes the reader identify with the character (not always, but typically). Therefore, the art of literature is not about putting ideas into someone's head; it is about finding beautiful, true ways of evoking the right ideas from the reader's own mind. The reader will "import" their own psyche into the experience, so the literary process is basically not complete until a reader has experienced a character for their self.
Literary artistry and craftsmanship
Mendelsund feels that artistry and craftsmanship are an elemental part of what makes a writer successful, because various strategies and devices can be used to help the reader have the kind of psychic experience the artist wants for them to have with the novel. By practicing the tools of the trade, literary devices and character devices, a writer can have a better perspective of what it is exactly that makes a reader "identify" with their characters. Mendelsund explains this from a few different points of view, since he sees the same basic idea in his own experience of professional piano playing.
