A Defence of English Literature – author unknown
10. Literature is a genuine human creation, a language like math and music, which does not occur in nature.
What is defined as culture is a) giving nature a human form (the sounds of nature are not the sounds of music) b) the
best that has been thought and said. The basis of all media is the written word, even movies which begin in script form.
9. Political/Scientific reasons: Literature presents different visions of the world we want or don't want, a way to
measure and choose politicians and policies when we vote. It even guides and inspires science, as the visions of
literature are being realized, such as Icarus and hang-gliding, or computers that write and respond to vocal commands,
even the cellular phone, an influence from sci-fi Star Trek. Also, politicians and governments do not sink to their lowest
level of brutality, inflicting the greatest misery on the greatest number, until they rationalize it in words. See Hitler's
Mein Kampf. Be able to read to know difference between ideas which are for or against life, and not accept them
passively.
8. Literature reminds us of our need for primary concerns which we share with animals, (especially our
concerns for food and water, sex, clothing, shelter, and unimpeded movement), over secondary concerns which are our
loyalties to a group/mob and beliefs like capitalism, religion, communism. Too often we go to war because we don't like
how another group thinks. Many stories are also of a paradise lost and gained (e.g. story of Eden, Atlantis, the Garden of
Hesperides) and we can't go anywhere unless nature is looked after as well, a strong message for the troubled
environment we live in.
7. Beside music and pictorial arts, we can only think in words and numbers (a number is also a word) and words affect
us as much as nature does. For example, five words are affecting the entire fabric of American life – “the right to bear
arms”, not to mention the effects of advertising and popular culture. Our ability to use words and numbers determine
our success in post-secondary education. People primarily made up stories and metaphors before other
kinds of verbal thought, and they are is still a part of our thought and reason – we can’t escape from
using metaphors in any verbal language, even science.
6. Reading stories force us to identify with the main character that often is very different from us. This
ability to identify, to walk in someone else's shoes, helps us to identify with and learn tolerance for people who dress,
think, speak, act and worship differently.
5. Literature brings the past and future into the present through stories which tell us about ourselvesrevealing the human condition. Literary stories happen. Stories of Narcissus (when we buy clothes), Orpheus (at
rock concerts), David and Goliath (the underdog in sports), the Hare and Tortoise (complacency in jobs/class), Peter
Pan (men who are forever boys), Cinderella (every Cosmo magazine).
4. We learn more about a genuine life, love, and power in reading than we usually do in life, a
relationship, or our work - unless you are very exceptional. Life is full of the destructive random acts of fate, broken
relationships and families, and missed opportunities. Literature is a virtual reality in which the reader is the hero and
encounters intense experiences which reality cannot provide.
3. Literature comes in a finite form (only so many pages) which contains the infinite (unlimited commentary) -and can speak to many ages/cultures beyond its own age/culture.
2. Literature educates and exercises your mind/imagination in the same way physical activity exercises
your body. We can apply this learning, this educated imagination, in a variety of ways, just as we can apply our athletic
skills in a variety of activities/sports.
1. We can’t participate in society unless we learn to use our imagination. Every job, position, relationship is
tinged by original sin and what makes the jobs, position, relationship bearable is the guiding ideal that only our
imagination can perceive and we attempt to realize — even if the attempt is impossible (doctors attempt a perfect world
of health, lawyers a world of justice, social workers a world without broken lives, teachers a world of wisdom.)
General reasons why we read literature:
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for enjoyment and personal pleasure,
art is essential to survive, to move the mind and the imagination and the spirit as far as it can go,
art is therapeutic; watching Hollywood movies is the most obvious application of art to cheer us up.
most movies are adaptations of books. No books = no movies, as scripts themselves are written in a literary form, and are direct
descendants of drama and theatre. Books and other arts (role-playing) provide a healthy catharsis and emotional release, as a healthy mind
is the basis of all health.
Literature must be of some worth if writers and artists are silenced, exiled, imprisoned, killed, etc. by governments or groups. If literature is
useless, why all the debate and controversy?