[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:03.20,0:00:05.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We have a general sense that these sort of\Nplaces
Dialogue: 0,0:00:05.57,0:00:10.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,are filled with things that are deeply important,\Nbut what exactly is literature good for?
Dialogue: 0,0:00:10.66,0:00:13.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Why should we spend our time reading novels\Nor poems
Dialogue: 0,0:00:13.64,0:00:15.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,when out there, big things are going on.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:15.89,0:00:21.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Let’s have a think about some of the ways\Nliterature benefits us..
Dialogue: 0,0:00:21.95,0:00:26.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Of course, it looks like it’s wasting time,\Nbut literature is ultimately the greatest
Dialogue: 0,0:00:26.68,0:00:32.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,time-saver, for it gives us access to a range\Nof emotions and events that it would take you
Dialogue: 0,0:00:32.66,0:00:37.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,years, decades, millenia to try to experience\Ndirectly.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:37.34,0:00:42.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Literature is the greatest ‘reality simulator’,\Na machine that puts you through infinitely
Dialogue: 0,0:00:42.23,0:00:45.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,more situations than you could ever directly\Nwitness.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:45.73,0:00:49.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It lets you - safely: that's crucial - see\Nwhat it’s like to get divorced.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:49.63,0:00:53.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Or kill someone and feel remorseful.\NOr chuck in your job and take off to the desert.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:53.15,0:00:56.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Or make a terrible mistake while leading your\Ncountry.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:56.30,0:01:01.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It lets you speed up time:\Nin order to see the arc of a life from childhood
Dialogue: 0,0:01:01.29,0:01:02.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to old age
Dialogue: 0,0:01:02.40,0:01:05.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It gives you the keys to the palace, and to\Ncountless bedrooms,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:05.08,0:01:09.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so you can assess your life in relation to\Nthat of others.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:09.09,0:01:14.27,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It introduces you to fascinating people: a\NRoman general, an 11th century French princess,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:14.27,0:01:17.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a Russian upper class mother just embarking\Non an affair...
Dialogue: 0,0:01:17.82,0:01:19.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It takes you across continents
Dialogue: 0,0:01:19.19,0:01:20.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and centuries
Dialogue: 0,0:01:20.49,0:01:26.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Literature cures you of provincialism and,\Nat almost no cost, turns us into citizens of the world.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:28.71,0:01:33.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Literature performs the basic magic of showing\Nus what things look like from someone else’s
Dialogue: 0,0:01:28.71,0:01:34.71,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,---
Dialogue: 0,0:01:33.09,0:01:34.37,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,point of view.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:34.37,0:01:39.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It allows us to consider the consequences\Nof our actions on others in a way we otherwise wouldn’t.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:39.60,0:01:44.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And it shows us examples of kindly, generous,\Nsympathetic people
Dialogue: 0,0:01:44.07,0:01:48.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Literature typically stands opposed to the\Ndominant value system, the one that rewards
Dialogue: 0,0:01:48.90,0:01:51.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,money and power.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:51.05,0:01:55.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Writers are on the other side, they make us\Nsympathetic to ideas and feelings that are
Dialogue: 0,0:01:55.48,0:02:00.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of deep importance but that can’t afford\Nairtime in a commercialised, status-conscious
Dialogue: 0,0:02:00.70,0:02:01.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and cynical world.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:04.12,0:02:06.43,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We are weirder than we’re allowed to admit.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:06.43,0:02:08.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We often can’t say what's really on our\Nminds.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:08.74,0:02:14.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But in books, we find descriptions of who\Nwe genuinely are and what events are actually like,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:14.08,0:02:20.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,described with an honesty quite different\Nfrom what ordinary conversation allows for.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:20.19,0:02:24.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In the best books it’s as if the writer\Nknows us better than we know ourselves.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:24.08,0:02:30.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They find the words to describe the fragile,\Nweird, special experiences of our inner lives:
Dialogue: 0,0:02:30.85,0:02:34.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,- the light on a summer morning\N- the anxiety we felt at the gathering
Dialogue: 0,0:02:34.48,0:02:39.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,- the sensations of a first kiss\N- the envy when a friend told us of their new business
Dialogue: 0,0:02:39.20,0:02:42.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,- the longing we experienced on the train,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:42.25,0:02:47.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,looking at the profile of another passenger\Nwe never dare to speak to
Dialogue: 0,0:02:47.09,0:02:51.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Writers open our hearts and minds - and give\Nus maps to our own selves so that we can travel
Dialogue: 0,0:02:51.92,0:02:57.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in them more reliably and with less of a feeling\Nof paranoia and persecution.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:57.50,0:03:03.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,As the writer Emerson remarked: ‘In the\Nworks of great writers, we find our own neglected thoughts.’
Dialogue: 0,0:03:04.55,0:03:09.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Literature is a corrective to the superficiality\Nand compromises of friendship.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:09.73,0:03:15.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Books are our true friends, always to hand,\Nnever too busy, giving us unvarnished accounts
Dialogue: 0,0:03:15.38,0:03:17.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of what things are really like.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:17.75,0:03:21.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,All of our lives, one of our greatest fears\Nis of failing, of messing up… of becoming,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:21.90,0:03:24.59,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as the tabloids put it, a ‘LOSER’.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:24.59,0:03:27.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Every day, the media takes us into stories\Nof failure
Dialogue: 0,0:03:27.47,0:03:32.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Interestingly, a lot of literature is also\Nabout failure. In one way or another, a great
Dialogue: 0,0:03:32.79,0:03:36.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,many novels, plays and poems are about people\Nwho’ve messed up, people...
Dialogue: 0,0:03:36.94,0:03:38.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,...who slept with mum by mistake
Dialogue: 0,0:03:38.74,0:03:40.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,... who let down their partner
Dialogue: 0,0:03:40.31,0:03:43.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,... or who died after running up some debts\Non shopping sprees.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:43.57,0:03:47.61,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If the media got to them, they’d make mincemeat\Nout of them.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:47.61,0:03:52.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But great books don’t judge as harshly or\Nas one-dimensionally as the media.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:52.77,0:03:59.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,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.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:00.66,0:04:06.70,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But if literature can really do all these\Nthings, we might need to treat it a bit differently to the way we do now.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:07.05,0:04:10.29,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We tend to treat it as a distraction, an entertainment\N(something for the beach).
Dialogue: 0,0:04:10.29,0:04:14.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But it’s far more than that, it’s really\Ntherapy, in the broad sense.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:14.69,0:04:18.45,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We should learn to treat it as doctors treat\Ntheir medicines, something we prescribe in
Dialogue: 0,0:04:18.45,0:04:23.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,response to a range of ailments and classify\Naccording to the problems it might be best
Dialogue: 0,0:04:23.13,0:04:26.03,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,suited to addressing.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:26.03,0:04:31.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Literature deserves its prestige for one reason\Nabove all others: because it’s a tool to
Dialogue: 0,0:04:31.07,0:04:35.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,help us live and die with a little more wisdom,\Ngoodness and sanity.