Daily Cascade

Oh, the Love of Literature!

Prompt:
"There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature.”
P.G. Wodehouse
Think about your friends for a minute, do you share the same taste in literature? Maybe movies? Maybe food? What makes your friends special to you?

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I believe everyone is unique. So, how can any two people have the same exact taste in anything? But this is my thinking. I'm sure many others assess this differently.

One thing in common between me and my good friends is that we all love literature, maybe different faces of it, but still, literature is also a friend and a healer who throws us a lifeline. In fact, I can't think of any person among my close friends who might dislike literature, and neither do I know of anyone I ever met who put down literature or cursed at it.

What makes literature so loved to the point that it eclipses almost all else, then? I think there is no single answer to this question, but it must be the written word or words put together lyrically and meaningfully in some way, so they can meet and address our deep-seated human needs. Maybe it is just an escape, but also, it is a love affair rooted in understanding, self-discovery, and language. Yes, the language, too, the sheer, intoxicating beauty of it.

Then, for those of us who are into books like me, a book isn't just paper and ink, but a doorway to countless other lives, ideas, worlds, and consciousnesses. Within the pages of a book, I can feel like a Roman Emperor, a Cinderella, a star-crossed lover, a detective cracking an impossible case, or part of the crew of a spaceship in outer space. The feelings I get from what I read take an intimate and active form, and my imagination fills in the gaps, making the experience uniquely mine.

Yet, literature is much more than escapism. It forces me to step outside of myself and inhabit other minds and forms with understanding and (I hope) empathy, too, so I can feel their dilemmas, cheer their wins, and mourn their losses. It teaches me what I call the "other" is often another version of myself. In this way literature mirrors my soul, while I search for myself in its themes and characters and hope that I meet my own unspoken and so-far-unrecognized joys, thoughts, and fears.

In addition, I also love words, their rhythm, sounds, and power over me. Plus, any elegant prose is a powerful art form. That perfect metaphor, a well-structured narrative, the poetic lilt of an observation are sometimes such profound joys in themselves, as well as becoming proofs to the creativity of the human mind.

Finally, literature offers connection and legacy. It links me to the thinkers and writers of the past and the present, allowing me to get a glimpse of their ideas and thoughts about what it means to be human. So I hope, through literature, I can live more fully, feel more deeply, and understand more profoundly.

And whether my friends have caught on to how literature affects us or not, they also contribute their own interpretations and reflections to it. In short, I believe literature connects us together as if a dream-weaver, a therapist, and an adventurer. And for my friends and me, this is truly everything.