Okay, I know it is ironic to write a post on defending literature in a literature blog itself, but I have my reasons. I will start with a simple question:
When was the last time you read anything— a book, an article, a poem, or even excerpts from Tumblr— and wondered how accurate it was? When was the last time you read something that haunted your mind for days after you’d read it?
What is so unique about this age of digitalization is that all the information we’d ever need is neatly compressed into videos of 90 seconds and can be accessed whenever and wherever we want. Ironically, the idea of reading something as long as 50 words is considered a Herculean task by today’s standards. In a society where careers in STEM are appreciated and encouraged more than pursuing a career in the arts and humanities, the disparity only grows larger. Unfortunately, even social media generalizes the arts as hobbies and the sciences as careers.
The most confounding and saddening question I’ve heard from a person on this topic was: “Why do we even need Literature?”, “What is there in literature that medicine or engineering doesn’t have?”
I hadn’t realized just how deep the chasm between arts (because literature is an art) and science had developed over the years until I heard that question, because one cannot separate arts and science into two neatly labelled containers; they are intertwined.
Arts help us refine the way we think, perceive the world around us, and respond to the pain and suffering of others and ourselves. We use art to express ourselves and our worldview. We imagine different and endless possibilities, question life, and our place in this universe. Science helps us realize those dreams of ours by helping us understand the work that has to be done to bring those ideas to life.
Imagine all the inventions that have been created for our use. Which one of them was created without imagination— that persistent human desire to do things easier for themselves? And yet, the world confines these disciplines into opposite ends of the room.
Our society’s viewpoint is extremely skewed as it considers the sciences as an investment, while dismissing the arts as a ‘waste of time’, because the arts force their students to think differently, that there is more than one correct way to interpret the same painting— unlike the fixed truths and facts that science presents to us.
But what they forget is that even the fixed facts of science were found out due to relentless questioning and exploration, a refusal to see things the way everyone sees them. Even today, our society considers that taking the arts over science is an indicator of laziness, or even worse, as an indicator of not having the intellect for science—but that is far from the truth. Devaluing the arts means that we are devaluing the very people who helped question and shape our society.
It is due to this, the question even arises: “Why DO we need Literature?” Because, according to our society, literature has no ‘opportunities’ or ‘scope’ (as they kindly put it), compared to fields like medicine, IT, engineering, etc. Maybe one cannot quantify the success or happiness that might arise from pursuing a career in the arts, but it does not mean that literature or any other art is inferior.
All of the radical ideas that shaped human society came from literature, revolutions happened due to the spread of ideas via books and pamphlets, and the best criticisms of society can be found in literature, but we refuse to acknowledge it. AI is being trained to craft stories and scenarios based on prompts like humans; it is being trained to understand a person’s writing style and then create pieces similar to that person. But at what cost? We sacrifice our critical thinking skills so that we can do something quickly. AI is meant to support humans, not to do even the simplest jobs for us. We need literature, or there will come a time when people will believe anything without question, and that would be the end of the world.
We can see how authorities try to police what we read. In the US, books like George Orwell’s 1984, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl are all banned because of their socio-political themes presented. Banning of books that deal with themes of racism, LGBTQ+, and war has risen during the past decade, disabling the younger generation from understanding significant events in the past and understanding the present, which leaves them ill-equipped for navigating both the present and the future. It might lead them to propagate harmful prejudices and stereotypes to their immediate society, and through social media.
Literature is not just about books; it’s about opening ourselves to view the different perspectives in life, helping us understand the questions and views that shaped our society as we see it today. During these times when books can be banned because they don’t conform to the crowd, finding our voice and sticking to it is essential. And I hope that our society would continue to question itself, because it is the way by which change happens.
Have a great day.
By,
Harsha Susan Benoy,
II DC English (Media Studies)
LIT SCROLLS 