see i would way prefer -- as a metaphor for exchange of energies -- something more like "chemistry": x induces changes in y (and vice versa) by "chemical reaction"

i just find this crossply of will and pull an incredibly confusing and unhelpful description of the interraction of a reader with a book or a listener with a record; of course viewing or hearing something causes changes in you -- but how you respond to these changes, at the time and after... the "influence" metaphor pulls a blanket over all of this, and (empirical enquiry tells us), induces us to pass on, as if all is explored and explained when nothing is!