T. Coraghessan Boyle, On What Literature Does

00:08 [T. Coraghessan Boyle] I think that a good work as conceived by a good reader, or re-conceived by a good reader, should be open to several meanings. Not that it's random, but I don't think an author should speak to what the meaning of a work is.

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00:26 No matter how serious the literature is, it is nonetheless entertainment, and an audience has to be able to appreciate it on that level or it's not good and it doesn't work.

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00:36 I think a work of art is supposed to seduce you into a certain point of view, and that point of view might not even be apparent to the author in beginning the work. That point of view evolves. So I think that's the distinction for me, and I think because of that, a work of art can be much more persuasive ultimately than, I think, an essay can.

01:00 With an essay, too, you can say, if you're reading it and you tend to disagree, you can say, yes, but, what about this point. With a work of art, though, you can get swept up in it, and you're seduced, and before you know it, you're angry, you're moved, you're disturbed. It just has that kind of power that an essay or a history can't have.