On Literature

From an essay about the difficulties of James Joyce's later writings by Jamison Noorlander.

"...Was it necessary that those epiphanies be as hard to reach as possible? Must they be buried like pearls in noxious slimy difficult nondescript oysters? And (since they undoubtedly are) is it possible to enjoy the pearls without the pain?

...One must be patient with books as with people...One doesn't reach Arcadia in relationships through superficial conversation in even dress, and the greatest artists prepare us for the real conversation, naked and deep, almost drowning, where "they may be one, as we are" (John 17:11) If Christ's words represent the ultimate plea for the ultimate unity, that is, the joining of mankind in the same total embrace that He enjoys with His Father, then mankind is obligated to use every tool at its disposal to hasten the achievement of such unity, and literature is manifestly one of those tools.

Literature properly experienced is life properly experienced, it is the engagement of life with life, intelligence with intelligence, personality confronting personality in a private place where the reader can make as many mistakes as he like - the writer isn't going anywhere - he won't be hurt! In that sense, literature, aside from its intellectual, spiritual and sensual pleasures, is an ideal training ground for the slow accrual of virtues which make human oneness possible. There is a tie between the virtues and vices of people and the virtues and vices of books. "