I think that’s a good explanation. Literature can help persuade emotionally when people are otherwise not willing to change their mind based on a purely rational argument.
But what if you already agree with the author to begin with? Then it would seem less profound. Maybe that’s why I haven’t experienced any revelations yet from literature.
Perhaps I can find a great piece of literature I disagree with and it would leave me with a greater appreciation for art.
Another way to look at it is that not all books are literature. Literature is its own special category because it’s a tool for building culture.
The 10k latte-sipping moneys banging on their MacBooks at the local co-work hub will never make literature because intent matters. You have a job to do.
That job is to be a truth teller. to tell society the bitter truths they’d rather not hear. That’s why you have to hide it under a story.
Salman Rushdie for example. The satanic verses.
A book may be very well written, so much so that it can be said it had artistic merit, but for a book to have literary merit, it needs to play a part in the culture wars.
But what if you already agree with the author to begin with? Then it would seem less profound. Maybe that’s why I haven’t experienced any revelations yet from literature.
Perhaps I can find a great piece of literature I disagree with and it would leave me with a greater appreciation for art.