The Practical Value of Reading Literature (!)
I wrote this for my students, some of whom look at me as I am teaching and must wonder what time it is. Well, it sometimes seems to me, the study of literature at university is becoming increasingly less popular. More and more people are drifting toward more so-called 'practical' subjects. University costs money. A student, or his/her family, might wonder why study a subject which (unless we do post-graduate study, or want to become a teacher) appears to have little relation to one's future career. Studying Shakespeare, the reasoning goes, won't help you be a better manager (unless you want to be like Macbeth....and of course, many managers are...). Personally, I never thought about the 'practical' side of reading literature. I didn't care about that, just about enjoying books for themselves. But, recently I started to put a few words down to try and explain that, when I thought about, Hell, yes, reading literature can really and truly have a practical aspect to it which impacts far beyond the activity of reading books. Read on!
Stories interest just about everyone. Stories in films, in books, in the newspaper, on TV, stories we hear from our friends, maybe about other friends' problems or adventures. Stories entertain: they take the person enjoying the story into a different world, time or frame of mind.
Stories in what people call 'literature' can be every bit as exciting, entertaining and engrossing as a story we watch as a film, but, for some people, some 'literary' stories can also be difficult. Difficult to understand, and difficult to find interest in. Yet, literary stories, or literature, in whatever form it takes -novel, short story, drama, poem or other- can, and should, go beyond the mere concept of entertainment. Good literature can help people to see the world around them in ways they may not have thought of, and can help to begin a mental process of analyzing or questioning all of the aspects of reality we sometimes take for granted.
Where does this magical power come from? Well, partly it comes about as part of the special relationship a reader will have with the story they are reading. I call it a relationship because it is, or should be, a two-way experience. If, for example, there is some unspoken part of the story, then it is unspoken and not directly stated because the writer is inviting the reader to imagine what that unspoken, unstated element is. This is something we encounter in everyday conversation: we don't have to provide all the details sometimes because to do so would sound too obvious, or unsubtle, even crude, or distressing. So, not saying everything is a common part of human interaction. In a literary story, however, we will encounter this kind of thing happening a lot. Therefore, unless the reader finds the story really interesting, he or she may become fatigued with all this guessing stuff. However, it is part of the process of reading stories such as this that, whether we realize it or not, incrementally and gradually, helps to exercise this aspect of our understanding of the reading of the story.
We become better at 'reading between the lines' as it’s called, the more we do it. Indeed, it starts to become a habit. We may even become annoyed by a writer who doesn't keep things unstated, a writer who tries to explain everything to the reader. After having read a number of stories where we have had to figure out a number of elements, we will have become more subtle and instinctually understanding readers, getting annoyed by writers who give too much information, too many signposts. Does that sound too fanciful? OK. Imagine a different situation: imagine you start work in a company. In your first few days, you need all the help you can get, and every time someone gives advice, even about the smallest things, you will be very glad. Fast forward a few weeks, or months, the same repeated advice and help will sound simply annoying. You have already become used to the job. Thus, in book reading, once we become accustomed to reading without being told too much, we then learn to enjoy that kind of storytelling. We know that our input, as an active reader, looking to try and understand the various elements of the story, is part of the process.
And what is the point of that process of making the reader work to understand the story? Well, it wakes us up, number one. Reading makes us active, not passive. Number two, it allows us the space to imagine not only one but two, or more, possible reasons for why something happened in the story. The reader is basically given permission to imagine reasons as to why things happened. This is parallel, of course, to the other thinking we have to do in reading: imagining a scene or a character's appearance visually. But being given the permission to speculate on what is happening and why it is happening is quite a huge thing to think about. By getting into such a situation simply by reading a book we have begun a mental process that is going to impact on all aspects of our life. Having to, or hopefully wanting to, because you somehow find it a rich experience to do so, imagine a variety of reasons or outcomes or aspects of some element in a story will exercise your mind to do exactly the same when dealing with some other situation in your day to day life. In other words, the very process of thinking about a story will automatically, if not always immediately and directly, expand your capability to think of various possibilities in life situations. And the more ways of looking at the world, the more interesting and enriching our life can become. It provides, at the very least, a vicarious experience of life situations, ones either we may have been in, have not been in yet, or may never be in.
This connects to another important aspect of literature: narrative. If literature can help to expand our way of approaching the world, not just the words of a story, it can also help us to understand the way the world is written. The 'way the world is written'? If that seems like a strange phrase, well, it probably is, but -and this point is so important- it is possible to see life as a series of stories, and a series of narratives. So, in a way, the world, and life, can be understood as though they were written down in black and white.
Let me give you an example: your life, like a story, has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Ok , that's a bit simple and cheap (but true). Let me give you another example. You go to the bookstore and you want to read a good book. You buy a biography of Steve Jobs. You read it. It is so interesting. Yes. It probably is. It is about the life of an innovator, a person who looked at the world and thought he could change it in some way. Ok. Great. But... the book you read, while very interesting, was, I imagine, not written in a particularly innovative or challenging way. The structure of the sentences, the choice of vocabulary, the structure of the whole narrative is likely to have been actually very conventional. People who bought a life of Steve Jobs got exactly what they wanted, according to the way they had expected, and without lots of literary tricks and stuff. We can even say it was beautifully written, and I could really learn a lot. Yes. Of course, but the actual vehicle in which you took your journey was just a regular factory-made automobile of words. More like a Ford or a Nissan than a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. Well, what of it?
Well, the point is that the way in which we receive information (for example, by reading) will obviously impact upon the way we think about information and about the world. So, if the actual material you are reading is conventional in form -in no way is it particularly original or different from the way 99% of other people write- then, even if the content is wonderful, you may well have learnt a lot about the book's subject, but will have learnt almost nothing about the medium in which the story was told. The book will have conformed to your expectations, rather than done something shocking (and potentially stimulating) like upset your expectations. You see, the form in which information is transmitted is, believe it or not, every bit as important, and indeed, some might say, more important than the actual information itself. This is simple. It's not what you say, it's the way that you say it. Who cares what the words say if you love the melody of a song? Form is so important. And being aware of form, and being aware of conventional types of communication, really and truly helps us to start to see the conventional forms all around us, and, perhaps, to see the problems associated with them. One of the worst aspects to conventional form, in writing, is that because it works upon giving the reader what he wants, it rarely challenges the reader, or makes him or her think too much. This is where literary writing becomes so clearly important. Literary writing, wherein the writer has become disenchanted with conventional forms -and such forms tend to breed conventional ideas, not the kind of ideas a person like Steve Jobs would be at all interested in- actually brings attention to its own form, its own style. Literature is literature because it doesn’t borrow other people’s language or other people’s ideas. Literature refreshes languages because it makes us take notice of it. It shouts at the reader from the page: look at me! Look at me very carefully! You have to, because you may suddenly become confused! You need to ask questions about me: don't rely on the old process of expecting what's gonna happen next. I may surprise you! Wake up, reader! Wake up, Sleepy Head!
At this point, we might start to look around at the world and ask questions about the way it appears to work. At this point, we will have gone far beyond the pages of a book. We may look at an umbrella as though we were looking at it got the first time. We may wonder if the way it is now is the only way it can be. We might even start to re-invent the umbrella. Does that sound crazy? Well, ole Steve looked at things pretty closely, for a long time, and without conventional ideas telling him how to look. By doing that, he started to see that he could re-think some of the forms of objects that surrounded him. The process whereby he would do such a thing began long before. I don't know if Steve was a big reader of literature, I have to admit (because I haven't read that biography yet!) but he may have been. Literature can help to awaken that aspect of our mind which encourages independent and multi-layered thought processes. It encourages us to question things, too. And we start to analyze things, including the very media or way of receiving the information we are looking at. Good readers become good lookers, good in the sense of being able to think in a sophisticated manner, with depth, sensitivity and originality. It may even make us, or encourage us to be, creative. After all, since the writer made you think, by not telling you everything on a repeated basis, and made you work and think and wonder and imagine and dream, and let you interpret freely, the writer gave you the building blocks of a very creative way of looking at the world, not just the page. Therefore, I believe that by reading literature and actually making an effort to enjoy it, and appreciate it, people can become better at looking at the world, at themselves, at problems that come up in life, and in a way which can develop into any avenue of interest or career you wish to pursue.
Having said all that, however, I have never read literature in order to consciously make myself better at doing 'real things' in the 'real world'. I just read good books because they are wonderful and amazing and great and that's plenty for me. Now, where's my umbrella?
Stories in what people call 'literature' can be every bit as exciting, entertaining and engrossing as a story we watch as a film, but, for some people, some 'literary' stories can also be difficult. Difficult to understand, and difficult to find interest in. Yet, literary stories, or literature, in whatever form it takes -novel, short story, drama, poem or other- can, and should, go beyond the mere concept of entertainment. Good literature can help people to see the world around them in ways they may not have thought of, and can help to begin a mental process of analyzing or questioning all of the aspects of reality we sometimes take for granted.
Where does this magical power come from? Well, partly it comes about as part of the special relationship a reader will have with the story they are reading. I call it a relationship because it is, or should be, a two-way experience. If, for example, there is some unspoken part of the story, then it is unspoken and not directly stated because the writer is inviting the reader to imagine what that unspoken, unstated element is. This is something we encounter in everyday conversation: we don't have to provide all the details sometimes because to do so would sound too obvious, or unsubtle, even crude, or distressing. So, not saying everything is a common part of human interaction. In a literary story, however, we will encounter this kind of thing happening a lot. Therefore, unless the reader finds the story really interesting, he or she may become fatigued with all this guessing stuff. However, it is part of the process of reading stories such as this that, whether we realize it or not, incrementally and gradually, helps to exercise this aspect of our understanding of the reading of the story.
We become better at 'reading between the lines' as it’s called, the more we do it. Indeed, it starts to become a habit. We may even become annoyed by a writer who doesn't keep things unstated, a writer who tries to explain everything to the reader. After having read a number of stories where we have had to figure out a number of elements, we will have become more subtle and instinctually understanding readers, getting annoyed by writers who give too much information, too many signposts. Does that sound too fanciful? OK. Imagine a different situation: imagine you start work in a company. In your first few days, you need all the help you can get, and every time someone gives advice, even about the smallest things, you will be very glad. Fast forward a few weeks, or months, the same repeated advice and help will sound simply annoying. You have already become used to the job. Thus, in book reading, once we become accustomed to reading without being told too much, we then learn to enjoy that kind of storytelling. We know that our input, as an active reader, looking to try and understand the various elements of the story, is part of the process.
And what is the point of that process of making the reader work to understand the story? Well, it wakes us up, number one. Reading makes us active, not passive. Number two, it allows us the space to imagine not only one but two, or more, possible reasons for why something happened in the story. The reader is basically given permission to imagine reasons as to why things happened. This is parallel, of course, to the other thinking we have to do in reading: imagining a scene or a character's appearance visually. But being given the permission to speculate on what is happening and why it is happening is quite a huge thing to think about. By getting into such a situation simply by reading a book we have begun a mental process that is going to impact on all aspects of our life. Having to, or hopefully wanting to, because you somehow find it a rich experience to do so, imagine a variety of reasons or outcomes or aspects of some element in a story will exercise your mind to do exactly the same when dealing with some other situation in your day to day life. In other words, the very process of thinking about a story will automatically, if not always immediately and directly, expand your capability to think of various possibilities in life situations. And the more ways of looking at the world, the more interesting and enriching our life can become. It provides, at the very least, a vicarious experience of life situations, ones either we may have been in, have not been in yet, or may never be in.
This connects to another important aspect of literature: narrative. If literature can help to expand our way of approaching the world, not just the words of a story, it can also help us to understand the way the world is written. The 'way the world is written'? If that seems like a strange phrase, well, it probably is, but -and this point is so important- it is possible to see life as a series of stories, and a series of narratives. So, in a way, the world, and life, can be understood as though they were written down in black and white.
Let me give you an example: your life, like a story, has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Ok , that's a bit simple and cheap (but true). Let me give you another example. You go to the bookstore and you want to read a good book. You buy a biography of Steve Jobs. You read it. It is so interesting. Yes. It probably is. It is about the life of an innovator, a person who looked at the world and thought he could change it in some way. Ok. Great. But... the book you read, while very interesting, was, I imagine, not written in a particularly innovative or challenging way. The structure of the sentences, the choice of vocabulary, the structure of the whole narrative is likely to have been actually very conventional. People who bought a life of Steve Jobs got exactly what they wanted, according to the way they had expected, and without lots of literary tricks and stuff. We can even say it was beautifully written, and I could really learn a lot. Yes. Of course, but the actual vehicle in which you took your journey was just a regular factory-made automobile of words. More like a Ford or a Nissan than a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. Well, what of it?
Well, the point is that the way in which we receive information (for example, by reading) will obviously impact upon the way we think about information and about the world. So, if the actual material you are reading is conventional in form -in no way is it particularly original or different from the way 99% of other people write- then, even if the content is wonderful, you may well have learnt a lot about the book's subject, but will have learnt almost nothing about the medium in which the story was told. The book will have conformed to your expectations, rather than done something shocking (and potentially stimulating) like upset your expectations. You see, the form in which information is transmitted is, believe it or not, every bit as important, and indeed, some might say, more important than the actual information itself. This is simple. It's not what you say, it's the way that you say it. Who cares what the words say if you love the melody of a song? Form is so important. And being aware of form, and being aware of conventional types of communication, really and truly helps us to start to see the conventional forms all around us, and, perhaps, to see the problems associated with them. One of the worst aspects to conventional form, in writing, is that because it works upon giving the reader what he wants, it rarely challenges the reader, or makes him or her think too much. This is where literary writing becomes so clearly important. Literary writing, wherein the writer has become disenchanted with conventional forms -and such forms tend to breed conventional ideas, not the kind of ideas a person like Steve Jobs would be at all interested in- actually brings attention to its own form, its own style. Literature is literature because it doesn’t borrow other people’s language or other people’s ideas. Literature refreshes languages because it makes us take notice of it. It shouts at the reader from the page: look at me! Look at me very carefully! You have to, because you may suddenly become confused! You need to ask questions about me: don't rely on the old process of expecting what's gonna happen next. I may surprise you! Wake up, reader! Wake up, Sleepy Head!
At this point, we might start to look around at the world and ask questions about the way it appears to work. At this point, we will have gone far beyond the pages of a book. We may look at an umbrella as though we were looking at it got the first time. We may wonder if the way it is now is the only way it can be. We might even start to re-invent the umbrella. Does that sound crazy? Well, ole Steve looked at things pretty closely, for a long time, and without conventional ideas telling him how to look. By doing that, he started to see that he could re-think some of the forms of objects that surrounded him. The process whereby he would do such a thing began long before. I don't know if Steve was a big reader of literature, I have to admit (because I haven't read that biography yet!) but he may have been. Literature can help to awaken that aspect of our mind which encourages independent and multi-layered thought processes. It encourages us to question things, too. And we start to analyze things, including the very media or way of receiving the information we are looking at. Good readers become good lookers, good in the sense of being able to think in a sophisticated manner, with depth, sensitivity and originality. It may even make us, or encourage us to be, creative. After all, since the writer made you think, by not telling you everything on a repeated basis, and made you work and think and wonder and imagine and dream, and let you interpret freely, the writer gave you the building blocks of a very creative way of looking at the world, not just the page. Therefore, I believe that by reading literature and actually making an effort to enjoy it, and appreciate it, people can become better at looking at the world, at themselves, at problems that come up in life, and in a way which can develop into any avenue of interest or career you wish to pursue.
Having said all that, however, I have never read literature in order to consciously make myself better at doing 'real things' in the 'real world'. I just read good books because they are wonderful and amazing and great and that's plenty for me. Now, where's my umbrella?