Does Fiction Civilize us?

To the Editor: (New York Times)

Re “Does Fiction Civilize Us?” (Sunday Review, June 2):

While agreeing with Gregory Currie that there is little evidence linking reading directly to behavior, I do think that there is a case to be made for the “civilizing” effect of fiction and literature.

Human beings make sense of the world through stories, both true and imaginary ones. It is the imaginary ones that perhaps give rise to the greatest opportunity for exercising a developing moral imagination. Seeing the world not just as it is, but how it could be or ought to be.

I am not suggesting a direct correlation between reading and morality, as if you could read a book and whatever the “message” of the book, the reader would then be fortified with a positive “lesson” or inoculated against a virulent problem, the one just overcome by the hero in the book. Literature doesn’t work in such a direct way.

At best, a good story can give rise to insights about ourselves and our world, and deepen our understanding of the human condition. And while that might not be everything, it should be enough to give literature a place of honor in our society.

JUDITH ROVENGER
New York, June 3, 2013

The writer is a youth services librarian.