Why Read Literature?

As I have said, the notion that literature gives access to a virtual reality not otherwise knowable does not have much currency these days. It will seem a bizarre, absurd, or mystified idea to many or to most. It will seem absurd, that is, except to someone who happens to have an unusual gift for reflecting on what happens when he or she reads a literary work. Nor would this concept of literature seem, to most people these days, a sufficient justification for reading works said to be literature. Nevertheless, I claim that this is reason enough. Human beings not only have a propensity to dwell in imaginary worlds. They have a positive need to do so. This need is not in itself unhealthy.