The Dogged, Irrational Persistence of Literary Fiction

Reports of its death are greatly exaggerated.

"… The worst possible thing those of us who care about literature can do is sell it short and put some end date to it. The future is always being written at every moment, and hope and faith and even an irrational belief in literature's primacy in and importance to the human prospect is the cure for despair. All of the books I mention in this essay survived to see fame and recognition and a kind of permanence against long odds.

Henry James, who had some career setbacks of his own, put it best: "We work in the dark — we do what we can — we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art."

Or as the Mets pitcher Tug McGraw phrased it a bit more economically: "Ya gotta believe!""

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/opinion/case-for-literary-fiction.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare