New Book Asks Whether Literature Still Matters. . . and here’s why . . .
In era that prizes the 140-character tweet, Harvard professor ponders the value of literature
"The Use and Abuse of Literature" (Pantheon Books), by Marjorie Garber: In an age that prizes short bursts of electronic information, Harvard English professor Marjorie Garber asks whether literature still matters. As might be expected of someone who has spent her career teaching Shakespeare to undergraduates, she answers with a resounding "yes."
For Garber, of course, literature does matter. "Language does change our world," she writes. "It does make possible what we think and how we think it." Echoing an argument made by the eminent literary critic Harold Bloom, Garber claims for literature a sort of stem cell-like power to generate fresh and new imaginative experiences in those who read it.
HEREIf you’ve been reading Poe’s stories and poems, it’s unlikely that you will deny Garber’s claims for literature. When was the last time you received a 140 character message on Twitter that made you think as much as these twenty-one words from Poe:
“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”
