Paul Auster - I Want to Tell You a Story

What is the purpose of fiction? Lovers of art ask this question all the time. Humanists claim that great art can make us better people. I think this can be true. Great authors, filmmakers, and artists have made me more perspicacious. But I've encountered avid readers and erudite professors who are miserable people. The most common view is that art offers us escape. This is a superficial view. If this is the case, art is a thoughtless and mindless endeavor.

Paul Auster, author of "Man in the Dark," wrote about this age-old question in "The Guardian," in 2006. Auster offered a surprising opinion; rather than claiming novels can be life changing, he claimed that fiction is completely "useless." Fiction has no purpose in the "real world," he wrote. "A book has never put food in the stomach of a hungry child. A book has never stopped a bullet from entering a murder victim's body. A book has never prevented a bomb from falling on innocent civilians in the midst of war." I post a larger section below:

"Some like to think that a keen appreciation of art can actually make us better people - more just, more moral, more sensitive, more understanding. Perhaps that is true - in certain rare, isolated cases. But let us not forget that Hitler started out in life as an artist. Tyrants and dictators read novels. Killers in prison read novels. And who is to say they don't derive the same enjoyment from books as everyone else?

In other words, art is useless, at least when compared, say, to the work of a plumber, or a doctor, or a railroad engineer. But is uselessness a bad thing? Does a lack of practical purpose mean that books and paintings and string quartets are simply a waste of our time? Many people think so. But I would argue that it is the very uselessness of art that gives it its value and that the making of art is what distinguishes us from all other creatures who inhabit this planet, that it is, essentially, what defines us as human beings.

To do something for the pure pleasure and beauty of doing it. Think of the effort involved, the long hours of practice and discipline required to become an accomplished pianist or dancer. All the suffering and hard work, all the sacrifices in order to achieve something that is utterly and magnificently ... useless."

The key word in Auster's writing is work. Don Delillo said, to paraphrase, that writing is a extreme form of concentrated thinking. Writers live a crazy life. They live and breathe in small rooms and they devote their lives to solitude. Fiction writers spend countless hours creating stories. Why? "For the pure pleasure and beauty of doing it." Struggling to find clarity. Reaching for understanding. Devoting yourself to deep concentration. All for something without obvious utility.

And we should read for the same reasons. To work. To concentrate.