To seek for a moral in a great work of literature is to misunderstand what literature does. The central purpose of literature — the central purpose of all the arts really — is to create an experience and so convey the otherwise inexpressible inner life of one soul to another. When an artist does this well, his inner world becomes yours, making you bigger inside than you were. Experience enough art truly and you will, to use Walt Whitman’s phrase, “contain multitudes.”
© 2024 Andrew Klavan
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