literature as a portal to truth

Some literature is crap.  But some of it is very good.


I was just having a brief conversation (it is never too late to discuss literature) via text with someone who recommended a book to me, and I was giving my thoughts of the first few chapters I've read thus far.  My friend read this book about a year ago, so it's been many books ago that he read it.  Even so, the author was able to leave a lasting impression.  He achieved a specific affect in us as readers that is rather astonishing.  I'm impressed, but it also makes me wonder how different all of us really are.


Do you ever notice how people who are really successful in life always say (in interviews and such) that they were bullied or picked on?  Well, who wasn't?  You'd have to be the worst kid ever to be not picked on at some point because everyone would fear you your whole life.  I guess my point is - and I'm being brief as I need to go to bed - that as different as we all are, perhaps we are all made of the same glue.  Perhaps we all feel terribly unique and singular - our own island - when really, we are in fact part of a whole after all.