Literature is About Us

     Many people claim a disdain for the literature we are all forced to read in high school.  For my generation, it was Faulkner, Tolstoy, Jackson, Poe and many other brilliant writers of literature.  I remember many of my classmates grousing about having to read those “stuffy old stories set in ancient times.  What do those stupid old stories have to do with me?”

     Yet, who among those grousers can forget The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and the horrible lesson that life is not fair?  Who can forget The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry and the lesson about love, sacrifice and empathy for others?  I could go on with Faulkner’s The Bear and Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyitch.  All of these magnificent stories not only taught us important lessons about ourselves and the world around us, but they were compelling reads, the original page turners.  And those were only the short stories in our lit books!

     Today’s kids are still reading classic literature old and new:  Harper Lee, Salinger and William Golding to name a few.  We are still reading Shakespeare.  No doubt there will never be a future generation that does not read Shakespeare.  Who among us can truthfully say these stories and books have nothing to do with us?  Who among us cannot relate to Romeo or Juliet or both?  What is bravery?  I learned the ideal of bravery by reading To Kill A Mockingbird.  Some people say bravery Is putting on a soldier’s uniform and going to war but I believe it is standing up for what is morally right against enormous odds.  This is what Atticus Finch did in literature.

Lessons of Literature

     Yes, we learn lessons from literature.  We sometimes learn about broad themes, but mostly, we learn about ourselves.  We relate to the characters.  Sometimes we are inspired by the places described in the story.  From Proust I can picture the Acacia trees along the boulevard in spring, although I have never seen them.  I have read about them in Remembrance of Things Past.  I can also relate to that longing to recapture a happiness from the past.  I understand the frustration and despair in Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy-how frustrating it is come from a lower class and how hard it is to become educated and overcome the obstacles inherent in that upbringing.  Literature is about us.  We read and we do not feel so alone.

Literature is all genres

     Now I know you are going to think I am a literature snob.  Not true.  Stephen King writes literature.  Read The Stand.  Frank Herbert, George Orwell, Raymond Chandler and Wilkie Collins.  E. B. White and Raold Dahl and Antoine de Saint-Exupery!  The list goes on.  As many genres as are out there contain literature.  It is simply, the best a story can be. 

     Whatever genre you are interested in as a writer is the genre you should read, as a reader.  For me, that happens to be classic literature or general literature.  For you, it might be young adult or fantasy. 

     Every genre, every form of literature is about us; about our lives our hopes our dreams and our fears.  It is as important for us to strive to read quality literature as it is for writers to strive to write it.   Clmay