Literature: Stale Crouton or a Bond Through Space-Time?

  I love reading. I always have. I find it is a way to escape from the here and now, experience something different, and learn. That is why literature is so important.

  Miriam-Webster defines literature as “writings in prose or verse, especially : writings having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest.” Many people see literature as something boring, or obsolete, but by this definition literature could even be a fanfiction that was published yesterday.  Maybe that’s taking it a bit too far.

  Literature may at times be boring, but I doubt it will ever be obsolete, just as the human experience will not become obsolete (at least not until climate change kill us all, or we’ve colonized space and have evolved into a completely unrecognizable species). For as long as humans have existed we have experienced change, be it merely growing up, or the death of someone we love. Humans have all had emotions like love, fear, anger, hate, and sadness. The specifics and situations may be different, but literature has the capacity to touch on all those things and bind us together through time and space and remove the “otherness” from others.

  I, personally, love gothic horror literature (is anyone surprised? Probably surprised that I'm not talking about The Lord of the Rings) and reading works from a time period is the best way to learn about it. Fashion, for example. Do you know what a button hook or a hat pin is for? A button hook is for doing up the tiny buttons on shoes or clothes, and a hat pin, as you might guess, is for securing ladies hats to their heads. You won’t be able to find a button hook or a hat pin at a Ross. Plus, the vocabulary is a great highlight. Have you ever used the word salient in your everyday life? Neither have I. But by reading literature you’ve just expanded your knowledge, and even if the meaning of the word isn’t clear in the text guess what: Google is a thing that exists.

  So even if you’re one who finds literature as dry as a three week old crouton, there is still much to be gained. And just remember, technically, fanfiction counts as literature.

"Ir's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish." J. R. R. Tolkien