Greatness in Literature

 

Greatness in Literature

I had help in the form of instruction from knowledgeable instructors in the fields of music and visual arts, but when it came to studying literature, I had no such help, with the sole exception of a few lectures by my high school English teacher on Emerson's essays and Ayn Rand's novels. So, I was left pretty much on my own to explore the vast expanse of world literature. I tried briefly to learn what to look for in the writings by reading some of the works of literary critics. However, that approach proved to be fruitless, as I should have predicted, because nearly all of the criticism was obviously biased toward the critic's own preferences and prejudices.

Finally, I concluded that I would never attain my goal of discerning greatness in literature, or in any other of the arts. However, I am convinced that some works exist for the purpose of providing a pleasant way of spending time for the reader, and to assure a steady flow of income to the writer. Some writers can churn out an impressive series of genre books: popular romance, spy stories, mystery and private eye, cowboy, horror and suspense, erotic, etc. But there is some writing that goes beyond this kind of ordinary writing and makes its mark in the annals of literature for some special reason.

That special reason may be as basic as being a kind of prototype, an initial work of a certain type, one that serves as a model for later writings and for other writers. Of course, be a prototype would not be sufficient, in itself, to consider the work “great” literature, but it could cause it to be considered “important” literature. Because of Poe's amazingly innovative mind, many of his stories became the models for other authors to build on. He explored many such possibilities: horror, mystery, suspense, science fiction, beauty, fantasy, and even humor, although his intellectual approach to humor has little appeal to present-day readers. He not only developed new types of stories invented, he also invented new character types, such as the mental detective. His detective Dupin became the model for the likes of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. He was a founder of science fiction. “The Gold-Bug” was a masterpiece of mystery-adventure, well before “Treasure Island”. And there are other prototypes in his writings, which we will eventually explore in greater depth.

Or, the special reason may be that the work has as its main protagonist a person of an interesting, unusual psychological type, like Pechorin in A Hero for Our Time, by Lermontov, or Don Quixote, whose mind was so obsessed with the past that it became his present reality.

Or, the author may be able, through his mastery of both words and psychology, to evoke a certain emotion or mood in the mind of the reader, as in Robert Frost's poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.

Some writing is special because it inspires the reader. Here,we need to be careful, because there is much writing that is intended to be inspirational, but in reality has the purpose of swaying the reader to the author's point of view on some issue. However, some works are truly inspirational, like Emerson's essay, Self-Reliance, or Elbert Hubbard's essay, A Message to Garcia.

There is also a kind of writing that challenges the reader, because it contains a hidden meaning, which is revealed only to the reader who suspects that the message is there, and is willing to persevere in thinking it through. For example, Poe's story The Spectacles, Frank Baum's story, The Wizard of Oz, and E.T.A. Hoffmann's story, The Sandman, all contain the symbol of special glasses that distort reality, but it is up to the reader to find the meaning of this symbol. Of course, it's not necessary to trouble one's self with symbolism in order to enjoy reading any of these three stories. But it is an intriguing challenge to one with a curious mind.

Some stories are so blatantly symbolic that the plot is indecipherable without a knowledge of the symbols. An example is Hoffmann's story, The Golden Pot, in which the main protagonist, Anselmus, falls in love with one of three green snakes. They are the daughters of The Salamander who, appearing as a man, is Anselmus's employer, the archivist Lindhorst. Lindhorst has assigned Anselmus the task of copying texts written in languages that Anselmus doesn't understand. This kind of story doesn't make much sense even if it is considered to be a simple fairy tale, unless the reader is given some key to unlock the symbolism.

Some works lead the reader into a dreamlike world of pseudo-reality, as for example, The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, in which the main character, Gregor Samsa awakens one morning to find that he has been transformed into a giant beetle – which event pushes the reader into a world of unreality. But then Kafka gradually leads the reader back into the real world by describing the real world means by which both Samsa and his family come to accept the situation and learn to adapt to it. Some of Kafka's other stories, as well as some of Poe's, utilize the same device: start with an absurd premise and then place it in a real world environment.

Some stories are dreamlike because they are nightmarish, as are some of Poe's tales.

Another type of story attempts to trick the reader into considering some basic philosophical problem. Hamlet is a prime example. He is by no means a wishy-washy young man who cannot make up his mind, as some actors portray him. He is a rare example of a young man who is actually wise, unlike the many examples of young “wannabe” intellectuals that populate much 18^th and 19^th century Russian literature: Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, Bazarov in Fathers and Sons, and Konstantin Treplev in Chekhov's play The Seagull. Hamlet isn't trying to decide' what is the “best” thing to do in any worldly sense, by what is the “right” thing to do in terms of the nobility of the mind, which is similar to Meister Eckhardt's concept of the nobility of the soul.

A few famous writers have devoted the majority of their writings to social issues. Some examples are Ibsen's plays, A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler, and most of the works of Theodore Dreiser, Sinclair Lewis, and Upton Sinclair. This kind of writing suffers from several problems. One is that the issue that constitutes the main theme of the plot no longer exists in its original form because new laws, new societal mores, changing racial and cultural makeup of the society have come into being. Also, the author of this kind of writing almost never explores in depth the various sides of the issue, but emphasizes the heroism of the characters that represent his own point of view, in a heavy-handed attempt to sway his readers. Thus, the work appears as propaganda rather than literature. That is one reason that Poe strongly opposed such didactic writing.