0:00:03.199,0:00:05.569 We have a general sense that these sort of[br]places 0:00:05.569,0:00:10.660 are filled with things that are deeply important,[br]but what exactly is literature good for? 0:00:10.660,0:00:13.639 Why should we spend our time reading novels[br]or poems 0:00:13.639,0:00:15.889 when out there, big things are going on. 0:00:15.889,0:00:21.950 Let’s have a think about some of the ways[br]literature benefits us.. 0:00:21.950,0:00:26.680 Of course, it looks like it’s wasting time,[br]but literature is ultimately the greatest 0:00:26.680,0:00:32.659 time-saver, for it gives us access to a range[br]of emotions and events that it would take you 0:00:32.659,0:00:37.340 years, decades, millenia to try to experience[br]directly. 0:00:37.340,0:00:42.230 Literature is the greatest ‘reality simulator’,[br]a machine that puts you through infinitely 0:00:42.230,0:00:45.730 more situations than you could ever directly[br]witness. 0:00:45.730,0:00:49.630 It lets you - safely: that's crucial - see[br]what it’s like to get divorced. 0:00:49.630,0:00:53.100 Or kill someone and feel remorseful.[br]Or chuck in your job and take off to the desert. 0:00:53.150,0:00:56.300 Or make a terrible mistake while leading your[br]country. 0:00:56.300,0:01:01.290 It lets you speed up time:[br]in order to see the arc of a life from childhood 0:01:01.290,0:01:02.399 to old age 0:01:02.399,0:01:05.078 It gives you the keys to the palace, and to[br]countless bedrooms, 0:01:05.078,0:01:09.090 so you can assess your life in relation to[br]that of others. 0:01:09.090,0:01:14.270 It introduces you to fascinating people: a[br]Roman general, an 11th century French princess, 0:01:14.270,0:01:17.819 a Russian upper class mother just embarking[br]on an affair... 0:01:17.819,0:01:19.189 It takes you across continents 0:01:19.189,0:01:20.490 and centuries 0:01:20.490,0:01:26.900 Literature cures you of provincialism and,[br]at almost no cost, turns us into citizens of the world. 0:01:28.709,0:01:33.090 Literature performs the basic magic of showing[br]us what things look like from someone else’s 0:01:28.710,0:01:34.710 --- 0:01:33.090,0:01:34.369 point of view. 0:01:34.369,0:01:39.500 It allows us to consider the consequences[br]of our actions on others in a way we otherwise wouldn’t. 0:01:39.600,0:01:44.069 And it shows us examples of kindly, generous,[br]sympathetic people 0:01:44.069,0:01:48.899 Literature typically stands opposed to the[br]dominant value system, the one that rewards 0:01:48.899,0:01:51.049 money and power. 0:01:51.049,0:01:55.479 Writers are on the other side, they make us[br]sympathetic to ideas and feelings that are 0:01:55.479,0:02:00.700 of deep importance but that can’t afford[br]airtime in a commercialised, status-conscious 0:02:00.700,0:02:01.939 and cynical world. 0:02:04.119,0:02:06.429 We are weirder than we’re allowed to admit. 0:02:06.429,0:02:08.740 We often can’t say what's really on our[br]minds. 0:02:08.740,0:02:14.079 But in books, we find descriptions of who[br]we genuinely are and what events are actually like, 0:02:14.079,0:02:20.189 described with an honesty quite different[br]from what ordinary conversation allows for. 0:02:20.189,0:02:24.079 In the best books it’s as if the writer[br]knows us better than we know ourselves. 0:02:24.079,0:02:30.849 They find the words to describe the fragile,[br]weird, special experiences of our inner lives: 0:02:30.849,0:02:34.480 - the light on a summer morning[br]- the anxiety we felt at the gathering 0:02:34.480,0:02:39.000 - the sensations of a first kiss[br]- the envy when a friend told us of their new business 0:02:39.200,0:02:42.250 - the longing we experienced on the train, 0:02:42.250,0:02:47.090 looking at the profile of another passenger[br]we never dare to speak to 0:02:47.090,0:02:51.920 Writers open our hearts and minds - and give[br]us maps to our own selves so that we can travel 0:02:51.920,0:02:57.500 in them more reliably and with less of a feeling[br]of paranoia and persecution. 0:02:57.500,0:03:03.500 As the writer Emerson remarked: ‘In the[br]works of great writers, we find our own neglected thoughts.’ 0:03:04.549,0:03:09.730 Literature is a corrective to the superficiality[br]and compromises of friendship. 0:03:09.730,0:03:15.379 Books are our true friends, always to hand,[br]never too busy, giving us unvarnished accounts 0:03:15.379,0:03:17.609 of what things are really like. 0:03:17.750,0:03:21.900 All of our lives, one of our greatest fears[br]is of failing, of messing up… of becoming, 0:03:21.900,0:03:24.590 as the tabloids put it, a ‘LOSER’. 0:03:24.590,0:03:27.469 Every day, the media takes us into stories[br]of failure 0:03:27.469,0:03:32.790 Interestingly, a lot of literature is also[br]about failure. In one way or another, a great 0:03:32.790,0:03:36.939 many novels, plays and poems are about people[br]who’ve messed up, people... 0:03:36.939,0:03:38.739 ...who slept with mum by mistake 0:03:38.739,0:03:40.309 ... who let down their partner 0:03:40.309,0:03:43.569 ... or who died after running up some debts[br]on shopping sprees. 0:03:43.569,0:03:47.609 If the media got to them, they’d make mincemeat[br]out of them. 0:03:47.609,0:03:52.769 But great books don’t judge as harshly or[br]as one-dimensionally as the media. 0:03:52.769,0:03:59.900 They evoke pity for the hero and fear for ourselves based on a new sense of how near we all are to destroying our own lives. 0:04:00.659,0:04:06.700 But if literature can really do all these[br]things, we might need to treat it a bit differently to the way we do now. 0:04:07.049,0:04:10.290 We tend to treat it as a distraction, an entertainment[br](something for the beach). 0:04:10.290,0:04:14.689 But it’s far more than that, it’s really[br]therapy, in the broad sense. 0:04:14.689,0:04:18.450 We should learn to treat it as doctors treat[br]their medicines, something we prescribe in 0:04:18.450,0:04:23.130 response to a range of ailments and classify[br]according to the problems it might be best 0:04:23.130,0:04:26.030 suited to addressing. 0:04:26.030,0:04:31.070 Literature deserves its prestige for one reason[br]above all others: because it’s a tool to 0:04:31.070,0:04:35.250 help us live and die with a little more wisdom,[br]goodness and sanity.