Richard Sutton

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The NY Times magazine of this past Sunday, posed an intriguing question in its table of contents. The article, written by Garth Hallberg, was titled, “Why Write Novels at All? Of course I had to read it, being in the clutches of a first draft, myself.  There have been a great many pronouncements, the past few years, of the coming/arriving/devastating death of literature/fiction/reading, take your pick. As a result, I figured I should see if this writer has anything new to say on what has become a somewhat tired subject.

First, don’t expect to have the title question answered at all. The author dives immediately into the effects of publishing’s marketing machine. Since Mark Twain’s time, publishers have sought to prop up repeat business by convincing the book-buying public, that the lives and views of authors carry importance equal to, or surpassing, their work. A great deal of money is spent every year, even now during the supposed death-throes of the industry, to position authors who have been vetted properly through academic circles, into media landslides including the author’s mentioned looming billboard in Times Square. Their faces appear everywhere, including U-Tube (as the author of the article cheerfully explains), Facebook, Google+, and myriad other promotional venues. Along with their face-time, unfortunately, they are expected to convey reams of profound comments upon their work, and the “art” in general. These nuggets are then replayed ad infinitum, through the derived commentary of an army of academic congnoscenti.

OK. I get it. Academic book people like to dissect books. They would dissect authors if given the chance, and frequently make attempt to do so with master strokes of acerbic criticism, but to what end? The belief that it somehow brings them personally closer to the author's process? Maybe, if you stretch far enough.

Mr. Hallberg’s article delves into some areas of academic interest, relaying research  findings that would be of value in starting conversations over Martinis, but he generally escapes his own initial question. The article leads to a conclusion which answers an entirely different question: Why bother to read novels? His conclusion lands as far from my own view of the subject as I could imagine. It reminds me of how actors are always providing interviewers with variations on, “I’m not who you think I am.” A ready answer to the "why do you do this?" trope (I love to drop those words!) in interviews.

Certainly, trying to figure out what motivates an author to start banging the keyboard can be entertaining, but surely, don’t educated literati know that the same holds true with authors as with actors? They are rarely who the media and academics think they are. They don't easily fit uinto the boxes contrived by the marketers. So, what are they, and why bother?

Writers are storytellers. All of them, whether they write self-help guides, discourses on religious teachings or fiction. Our species has a hard-wired need to hear stories, since we first discovered that pulling up logs around a nice fire was a good way to spend a winter night.  Storytellers help the time pass faster and more enjoyably and were always given high ranks in society through history. Well-documented fact. They bothered to do so, partly, I’m sure because it was easier than spearing deer for a living, but also because that’s who they were. The same holds true today.

In my experience, having known quite a few fiction authors, I’m pretty sure that we write to satisfy an inescapable internal compulsion. Most seem to have felt its gnawing at their brains since childhood. The storyteller trait will probably one day, be found to lie along some length of chromosome or other and that will possibly also kill the need for academic, discourse over why. I hope so, because it’s not the why that is important.

Readers read for a different reason. Reading is one of the few remaining activities which, although considered a form of entertainment, are IMHO, necessary for the survival of the mind. In the digital media age, of course, we don’t have to work very hard to remain entertained. We can fill most of our day with pure entertainment from sources that can remain attached to you: armbands, earphones, etc. etc. Staying entertained is not a question. Less now than even ten years ago. However, reading is a different animal. At its essence, reading satisfies two internal human needs. The need to focus and expand our minds and the need to share experience. While the shape and style of the materials we read may change, the act of reading is a moment of perfect solitude. A rare moment in our high-speed world. Reading requires a conscious act and provides tangible results.

No amount of media-induced marketing hoopla can change that simple fact. When we read, we sit near the fire and soak in the experiences of a storyteller. The transfer of emotion and knowledge is direct. No wired or wireless technology is needed, and on the other side, we emerge with enlarged capacity for feelings, more knowledge, and even standing questions that help direct us through our journeys.

At the conclusion of Mr. Hallberg’s essay, he suggests that the end of the road for fiction may indeed be just ahead. That conclusion, based on a perception of competition for entertainment crowding out books and the time they require, even on an eScreen, misses the why of reading entirely. It also misses the why of writing. Home Sapiens is not complete without solitude to focus and sharpen the mind, even if those moments are few and pass quickly. As quickly as a page turns, either in paper or with a flick on a touch screen.

Writers must. If they want to feel fulfilled, they must, even if they don’t sell in blockbuster figures or pass their ideas to a larger circle than their immediate family and friends.

There may be persistent, alarming cries of doom and gloom when it comes to the business of publishing and selling novels, but reading -- listening to our griot’s stories – is necessary to human life. The technological and economic changes that have so upset the world of publishing may affect books and reading, but only in form, not in function. There are more fiction books available now than ever before. It is a reader’s paradise. That makes it a writer’s paradise as well.

Litopians: sorry for being long-winded!