Another in a series of posts of notes from a book by a college professor of mine at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I took the class “General Semantics” from Kenneth G. Johnson in the early 1980s, and found it to be the most enlightening class I ever took. I hope you get something out of it, too.
XXIII.
The language of literature and poetry emphasizes expressions of feeling, subjective responses, uniqueness. In these types of writing, as well as in fiction, myth, legend, etc., we are not concerned with actual maps of real territories. When we say writing of this type is “true,” we do not mean scientifically or historically true. The plays of Shakespeare or the poems of Milton produce in us attitudes toward our fellow man, an understanding of ourselves or feelings of deep moral obligation that are valuable to humanity.
Science enables us to cooperate; the arts establish a flow of symphony and understanding so that we want to cooperate.
The novelist abstracts only the events relevant to his or her story and then organizes them into a meaningful experience.
