Literature Can. (My Apology)

Literature is the greatest thing in the world. I use the term great in two ways: the first being the most common, meaning that literature is a wonderful thing. The other way in which I use it to describe literature is that it is vast. Literature encompasses everything in the world. There is nothing that has ever been talked about that was not in a book, play, or poem. Literature has started wars, divided families, and showed this generation the mistakes made in the past. Nothing else in this world can contain commentary on or accounts of everything in the world, but literature can. So why on earth do I have to defend one of the most powerful entities in the world? Not only does literature teach us something, it also brings everyone that experiences it to a higher level of existence. Even with that said, apologizing for being a dreamy bookworm is really not that new to me. For some reason, we dreamers are hard to come by and, therefore, sometimes misunderstood. People tend to think that I am unrealistic and idealistic. They think that it is pointless to read all day and that literature serves no real purpose. I find that a bit humorous, as I find most things not pertaining to literature entirely pointless. There is no aesthetic purpose to numbers. Numbers cannot inspire. They cannot create a world with merely ink on a page. Literature can.
Literary analysis can be described as a pointless school of thinking, but it is in fact the most useful and infinite type of analysis. Economists can analyze numbers and risk variables, but the entire idea of analysis takes on a myriad of new levels when it relates to literature. Numbers can be analyzed once, but a book will never stop revealing its secrets to a reader and critic, teaching that person more than a grouping of numbers ever could.
In Don Quixote, the canon echoes Plato’s view that all literature must be didactic. Walter Pater argued for art for art’s sake. I argue for both. In my world of literature, Plato and Pater can get along like school buddies, because I argue that all literature and art teaches us something. Aristotle had it right when he said that literature must entertain and teach. I think that all literature entertains and teaches. I have never experienced a piece of literature that has not taught me something about myself or the world around me. Everything I read sparks a light inside my brain and soul and somehow permanently changes me. Hamlet taught me about guilt, Beowulf taught me about bravery, Holden Caulfield taught me about teenage angst and showed my sixteen-year-old self that I am not alone in the melodramatic emotions I felt at the time. Every time I experience a new piece of literature or revisit an old favorite, I am forever changed just a little bit. Nothing else in the world can cause a constant metamorphosis in the person experiencing it, but literature can.
Literature and poetry do not have to be literal to teach us not to get crushed by carts. A true critic will read between the literal words of poetry and find a way to dig out the magic, the message and the lesson. Don Quixote, for example, is not just a satire of chivalric novels, but it is a beacon that shows dreamers just like me that we really can live in the world of our imaginations if we truly want it. Windmills can become giants. Whores can become princesses because they are seen through the eyes of a person that wants them to be those things. Don Quixote and I both see the world through these poetic rose-colored glasses. Don Quixote was inspired to become a knight errant. Don Quixote, in turn, inspired me to remain a dreamer and to cast off perceptions that everything in life must have a practical purpose. I am a self-proclaimed romantic and idealist, and I have literature to thank for that. Literature allows me not to escape this reality, but to travel to a completely different (but still real) universe. In these worlds, animals speak, I travel through time, and the prince may either save the princess or kill everyone. In the reality that literature allows me to experience, anything is possible. The real world, or the low mimetic as defined by Northrop Frye, is boring! I refuse to allow myself to only experience the so-called “real world”. I much prefer to dive into the realm of the high-mimetic, the romantic, or even the mythic. Only with the aid of literature can a person, if even only for a few minutes or hours, count herself among the Gods.
For my final claim, I want to use one of my favorite quotes from John F. Kennedy: "When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses." This quote shows the scope and power of poetry. It can bring even the most practical and power-hungry man into an existential level of thinking and remind him of his place in the world. Kennedy explains the importance of the immense scope of poetry to people most likely concerned with other things. Poetry can connect people to the beauty of the world and help them cast off unimportant concerns.
Without literature and poetry, the world would have one dimension and level. Literature gives it an infinite amount. When life makes our world look bleak and dull, literature shows us the omnipresent possibilities.