Bring Back Moral Fiction

"It was once commonly understood that fiction was in the wisdom business, that it offered not only aesthetic pleasure but also moral improvement. This function of literature was not tough to spot. One of the first English novels was Samuel Richardson's 1740 work, Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded-a title not meant ironically. Through the 19th century, many authors turned directly to the reader with philosophical and social (if sometimes ironic) commentary: "It is a truth universally acknowledged"; "It was the best of times"; "All happy families are alike." For readers not up to the challenge of full George Eliot novels, her enterprising publisher compiled a volume of Eliot's many Wise, Witty, and Tender Sayings, in order to more broadly distribute "a morality as pure as it is impassioned.""

"Such open authorial musing, and maybe literature's wisdom-seeking function itself, has been out of vogue during the past century of show-don't-tell storytelling. Although this has surely spared us some clunky sermonizing, it has brought downsides as well. Too many writers seem to have overlooked what I consider to be a key piece of the mission. I can't tell you how many novels I've abandoned in the belief that the writer has nothing to teach me-and, worse, is not even trying to learn. Over the past couple of years, as the evident decline of literary reading has been blamed on the ubiquity of smartphones or the supposed withdrawal of men, I've suspected that some readers might be tuning out fiction (or turning to the classics over contemporary work) for another reason: the sense that today's novelists are not aiming to help with the practical matter of how to live."

Fiction historically combined aesthetic pleasure with moral improvement and frequently offered explicit guidance about how to live. Early novels like Samuel Richardson's Pamela and many nineteenth-century works delivered philosophical and social commentary directly to readers, even through aphorisms and compiled sayings. During the past century, a show-don't-tell aesthetic reduced overt moralizing in fiction, producing gaps in practical ethical instruction and prompting some readers to abandon contemporary novels perceived as uninterested in teaching. Contemporary explanations for declining literary readership overlook a possible cause: many modern novelists appear to have retreated from offering practical guidance on living.

Read at The Atlantic