Reception Theory and Les Liaisons Dangereuses Of all the literary critical theories discussed thus far, I find reception theory to be by far the most intelligent and rewarding. After all, where does literature become literature, where does it "happen" so to speak, if not in the mind of the reader? Without the reader, literature is an ink stain on paper. This correlates with Berkeley's solipsistic analogy of a tree falling in the woods. Without a listener does it make a sound? Well, technically it gives off vibrations, but only one ear will interpret those vibrations as sounds. So with literature. The reader's mind, operating on the text with its various literary and extratextual codes, makes it literature. In the case of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, reception theory is not only useful, but essential to any kind of literary discussion on the topic. the novel. Considerations about the author's intent are clearly useless, since, due to the epistolary format, such intent cannot be gleaned from the text. As much as we try to construct some kind of original meaning in the mind of the author, we ultimately find that the meanings that come to us have been provided by ourselves. Laclos is like the puppeteer's hand: we never see it, even though we know it controls the entire show. All we see are the elaborate puppets of the 18th century as they dance through every vile deception, every "dangerous connection." to ascertain the moods and motivations of the characters themselves. Given that we know that most of the characters are moderate to outright liars, writing one thing to one person and another to another, who do we believe? When giving the appearance of carrying one's soul is just one more weapon in the arsenal, how can we determine when soul carrying actually occurs? Here too, reception theory comes to our aid. Looking at our literary and non-literary conventions, we begin to feel more confident about the proposition that Valmont is really in love with the President and that the Marchioness is really in love with Valmont. After all, that's what makes it good, right? Without love behind its ugly head at some point, the book would be a dull, unsatisfying and depressing look at people at once charming and depraved..