>>15327
He explains what it means for literature to genuinely explore themes by testing moral/ethical hypotheses, so that a book can have real moral meaning without the author sperging out on a blatant rant. Frustrating that people see the title and assume he’s advocating for Goofus-and-Gallant preaching; I think he’d agree that that’s the problem with morally childish/incoherent award-bait lhat’s now called ‘socially important’ (The Handmaid’s Tale etc.), when compared to texts that are complexly constructed to explore truth rather than present a predetermined morality play. I'd never heard this fully articulated before, although I felt the same intuitively.
He argues that an author must have the moral/intellectual humility to embrace being proven wrong, and commit to ruthlessly honesty, rather than merely seeking to prove himself right. This is a larger point about what it means to be intellectual/scientific/philosophical that applies to so much in life.
Gardner repeats his core thesis a bit and I would suggest skimming towards the end if it feels like you’ve heard everything he has to say. Still, there are also excellent use of examples of what he’s talking about, especially when discussing thematically vacuous but popular/critically acclaimed trash, and comparing it to the best of literature.
What’s most inspiring to me as someone who wants to write, and not just read, is he shows it’s remarkably simple to uncover real human truth if your sincere goal is to be true-to-life (rather than true-to-preexisting-belief-system) even and especially when following contrived scenarios to their (socially) logical conclusions. And yet it’s clear how this is increasingly rare thanks to pretty blatant conceptual regimentation by our self-appointed cultural gatekeepers (plus readers/writers have less and less literary appreciation/ambition, likely as a result).
It’s a welcome antidote to the morally relativistic and nihilistic streaks in modern culture, especially that most obnoxious strain which preaches intractable relativism while simultaneously declaring the absolute truth of whatever globalist/progressive ideological assertions are popular with the people at the top of the publishing industry foodchain.
If you like books about books, this is the best book about books I can name.
