Why Literature?

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coberst
Posts: 1516
Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2005 6:30 am

Why Literature?

Post by coberst »

Why Literature?

I have been concentrating on the study of history, science, philosophy and biography. Recently I have begun to direct my attention toward literature. This redirection has opened a great new continent for exploration.

One thing that I have learned by this redirection is just what the primary purpose of literature is. There are, no doubt, many roles for literature to play other than this one but I am convinced I have found the most important one.

Imagine the situation that instead of our being born with color vision we are born colorblind. Then imagine that a group of individuals tells us that they have acquired color vision. The first problem, of course, is how this group explains to the color blind just what color is. How does one explain blue to an individual who was born colorblind? This is an obvious impossibility.

Then imagine that the group informs us that anyone can gain color vision through study. That anyone can gain color vision through the conscious and focused act of the intellect.

I suspect most individuals would walk away from such seeming non-sense with a shrug and a grin. Those few who were sufficiently convinced with the statements of the group would give the idea a try. Suppose some of those making the proscribed effort found it to be a bore and a struggle and lost enthusiasm for the attempt until they stumbled into reading literature. Through the inducement found in reading an interesting plot with delightful characters they began to acquire a dim sense of color. This dim sense encourages the reader to continue in the pursuit of color vision.

Literature, all art, is the attempt by the artist to communicate a vision of reality to another person.

If I had the talent I would have been attempting to communicate my ideas by writing poetry or short stories instead of my essays.

I do not generally quote the bible but I found this quote in something I was reading and it seemed very appropriate for me. Quotation from Ecclesiastes “And I set my mind to search and investigate through wisdom everything that is done beneath the heavens. It is an evil task that God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.”
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