What is Literature?

Literature is a detour from our everyday highways.

The detour is a path that runs parallel to the highway and subtly tempts us to repel from the constant traffic otherwise known as our busy daily affairs. Day in and day out, the highway is abundant with people. Every so often, we realize that our fixed way of life needs a burst of beauty, delight, and amazement. We then look upon the detours for salvation. 

The detour is actually called a “circular road” that runs into wondrous places and then returns to merge with the already existent highway. Getting lost is no burden for anyone because all detours will eventually connect to the main way.  

The detour offers the sense of pleasure with its unforeseen landscapes and everything and anything that is out of the blue; no one shall be afraid of such adventure as the detour will always lead us back to the orderly highway. What we experience on the detour is different from everyone else’s. No one can fully imagine what we feel and see on the venture, for there are only mysteries and secrets that are locked safely in our minds. These thoughts will surely differ from those of the highway.

The detour is our step into literature and each step is a temporary absence from reality as we let our minds roam free and our perspectives broaden. It’s economical use of language, its verbosity, its dirty pile of lies, its implicit themes of truth, its blunt position on beauty, its dark portrayal of the Underworld. Literature expresses the wisdom and the stupidity of the author through words. The expression is absorbed by readers as they begin to search for the most accurate and the most truthful message behind all the written work. The author’s message becomes almost a fantasy as readers get caught in the world that is built around the author’s piece. The words themselves- fragile, complex, symbolic, or convincing- all shape the author’s desire to push the reader from all forces of reality. Each masterpiece is specifically stylized by each author as if a piece of art is painted by an artist. Each brush stroke is like each word. All elements of the arts are melded into triumphant unity. The art may not be beautiful and the piece of writing may be intensely disruptive. Namely, art may be undesirable even disgusting. Then how does one come to appreciate it? We look for the author’s intentions and hope to acknowledge the thought behind the piece of work. We hope to gather even a tiny ounce of understanding for the piece. Everything is driven by human curiosity.

However, before too long, the “circle road” will meet the highway and the life we know so well begins to race through again. Filled with disappointment for some, or relief for others, a handful of us will have been influenced in some manner by the detour. Literature has that power to affect humankind.

The dare devil within us persuades us to run off the highway and experience literature.