"Carrying on with Plato's figure of a ladder, it seems as though with the imagination there is a journey upward into a world where subject and object are at one. This takes place, apparently, in literature, through an interchange of illusion and reality. Illusion, something created by human imagination, is what becomes real; reality, most of which in our experience is a fossilized former human creation from the past, becomes illusory."

So we find ourselves with the Bible. This concept conjured up by Northrop Frye suggests that, when it comes to text or stories, our illusory imagination must command the reader. Why? Because reading, say, The Bible with a realistic context (without the interchange) is exactly like taking the bible literally (not literarily). If the stories and intentions of the Bible are primarily allegorical then reality's applicability is less than that of illusion.

More importantly to Frye, reading literature is like meditating. It's a practice, it takes practice, and the more you practice the more you develop your illusory tactics. What I'm saying is that one may not experience that "interchange" if they're not a seasoned reader, though that "interchange" is what readers should develop, theoretically. So, if one's not a seasoned reader then they might use their fossilized memories as allegories for the story. This is not the purpose of literature; it's purpose is to have the story and its characters get caught up in your head of ideas. I suppose that the Bible is meant to be understood as a journey of the development of your imagination and ideas vicariously experienced through the characters and concepts of literature. Using your fossilized experience, reality, is almost utilizing close-mindedness. Interchangabilty allows open-mindedness, conceptual progression, and for you to live lives which aren't yours.