Pleasure

Today I read two pieces defending, or appreciating, literature. One of them was openly lamenting the low appreciation for literature in the current economical and social climate, with many people claiming that the arts are unnecessary. The second, pointed out a link between literature and innovation. (Here, and here, links are in Spanish, but definitely worth a read, especially the first one.)

I happen to be of the group that thinks that art should be done for the pleasure of the artist, that money comes later, and only if you can get it. I will never begrudge a successful artist their riches, but I do not think they should be appreciated more than anyone else's work.

On the other hand, both of these pieces reminded me of pleasure. The pleasure I take in reading, and in knowing what I have read. The pleasure I take in having read certain authors comes from the fact that having read them and loved them, I become a part of an exclusive club: the club of the readers. This may sound ridiculous, but let me explain.

I first started reading "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" when I was 8 years old. A friend lent it to my parents for me to read. I read the first few pages and hated it. Returned the book to the person who had lent it to me and forgot about it. A few months later my parents took me to Madrid and we went to Pasajes, a bookshop in Madrid that sells books in many languages. I found a copy of both "Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone" and "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and for some reason I decided to buy them. I cannot really tell you why, I had hated it so much initially, but I bought them. And I read the first book in the series and I fell in love. And for ten years (fine, for a bit less than that, for 9 years) I obsessed over the Harry Potter books. Didn't miss a release or an article or anything. They were part of my everyday. By the end, films had been made and it was stranger to find someone who didn't know Harry Potter than someone who did; but for a brief period of time, between 1998 and 2001, finding someone who'd read the books and loved them as much as I did was a special treat. I was part of a club, and the members of that club were automatically on my team, and we could talk for hours, and we had more in common than I can imagine.

Literature is always a bit like that. It is a source of joy and pleasure, but also a secret vanity and pride: to have read someone fantastic, someone that not everyone else has read; to have discovered a new author (or an old one you hadn't known); to have someone recommend a book because they know you will like it. Because they know you are a person of good taste and discernment and you deserve the pleasure of that book.

For a long time, whenever I went to a birthday party, I gave a book as a present. After a time I realised a lot of people weren't into books, and this saddened me slightly, but it also gave me something. Nowadays I only give books to people I really appreciate. People who I know will enjoy them and will return the favour. And even then, not everyone gets books. Not people who don't like reading. Not people who have never recommended a book back. The people who know me best probably know that giving me a book, especially giving me a book they have read and loved and think I will love, is (almost, most of the time) the best present they can ever give me. Yes, reading brings me pleasure. Incredible amounts of it. And for some time I have thought that movies and certain shows could give me the same sort of pleasure. I was wrong. To me, there's nothing quite as good as reading. There's nothing that gives me as much freedom as a good book in my bag.

So in defense of books. I don't think they are necessary. I think the world could exist without them. But we would lose so much: ideas, shared experiences, understanding the pain of others, and also the pleasures. Fiction, and literary fiction at that, is an effort not only to tell a story, but to give someone an experience. I admire authors who publish their work for their work (writing is hard work) but I also admire them for giving people they don't know, people far away, people who may not be their friends and people they might not like a piece of themselves, of their life and their view of the world, and also a piece of joy. Reading is pleasure, and I hope it is never taken away from me.