Why?

[rowens]

Why do poems, short stories, novels and plays matter? What value do they have? Why do you write? If you hope to be able to write something of value, what motivates you or convinces you of this need for value in literature? There are many reasons: aesthetic, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, political, just for fun, out of boredom, need for attention, need to accomplish something, need for admiration, competition, struggle, need to emulate. But what real value?

[Achebe]

Aesthetic value is what they have - you said it yourself.
Intellectual - no, for that you'd be better off trying to understanding General Relativity.

[rowens]

Is aesthetic value in itself as important as big money-practical things such as sports, politics, megachurches and technological innovations?

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In creative literature, I mean.

[Leanne]

If it wasn't for artists, most technological innovations would not have been imagined possible.

[rowens]

My local library's new policy is to remove any books that look over twenty years old and use them as recycled paper. Besides that, the shelves are being swamped with self-published paperbacks. So I was asking questions to everybody about the value of these old books. To me, the books themselves, the very copies being destroyed, matter. But most of them aren't even being replaced. Maybe it's no big deal to anyone but me. So I was just asking around about these things.

[Leanne]

Your local library is the reason America will fall. Look to them when it's time to blame and burn stuff.

[milo]

Your local library is the reason America will fall.  Look to them when it's time to blame and burn stuff.

eh - people have been saying this stuff for 400 years now.  i guess someone will be right eventually.

[rayheinrich]

Why do poems, short stories, novels and plays matter? What value do they have? Why do you write? If you hope to be able to write something of value, what motivates you or convinces you of this need for value in literature? There are many reasons: aesthetic, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, political, just for fun, out of boredom, need for attention, need to accomplish something, need for admiration, competition, struggle, need to emulate. But what real value?

Value? I only apply this term to food, shelter, and fucking.... ok, omit that last one.
For me it's fun, a hobby (both reception and transmission).
Profound? YES! Nothing of value can replace fantasy; that's the artifact noise that makes big brains possible.

[billy]

they matter because they often show what society was, is, and could be. they are us, our thoughts dreams and fears. they are our history. since the first wall painting of hand, horse, or woolly mammoth they transmit the our past and our future. to burn books is to burn the culmination of who we are.

[Akira]

Your question presumes they do matter.

If I enjoy sucking my thumb, why does it matter? What value does it have? Aesthetic, intellectual, emotional, spiritual.....

Jim has your answer here (it's a few minutes long, but stick with it to the end):

[rowens]

I don't get to watch videos this time of day. I couldn't even find somewhere to read the words. I might presume things, but until recently I lived in a fantasy land where I would go to the library and read and write. Now the books I read are gone. They also had to remove some bookshelves to make room for the television sets. Maybe in other places around the world libraries are obsolete and I was living in the past. I can answer my own questions all I want, I'll just get asked to stop making demands in the public library as if I own the place. I've been unable to sleep imagining all my favorite books being ripped apart. I assume they are getting rid of books because nobody else here uses them. That's what I was told. Last week a young boy was walking to the door talking about the books he was going to get, his mom said ''We aint here for no books, we're here to play video games.'' Maybe all this is just here where I am.

[rayheinrich]

I don't get to watch videos this time of day. I couldn't even find somewhere to read the words. I might presume things, but until recently I lived in a fantasy land where I would go to the library and read and write. Now the books I read are gone. They also had to remove some bookshelves to make room for the television sets. Maybe in other places around the world libraries are obsolete and I was living in the past. I can answer my own questions all I want, I'll just get asked to stop making demands in the public library as if I own the place. I've been unable to sleep imagining all my favorite books being ripped apart. I assume they are getting rid of books because nobody else here uses them. That's what I was told. Last week a young boy was walking to the door talking about the books he was going to get, his mom said ''We aint here for no books, we're here to play video games.'' Maybe all this is just here where I am.

        Welcome, this is how the dead live.

[Achebe]

eh - people have been saying this stuff for 400 years now.  i guess someone will be right eventually.

it's only an election away

[QDeathstar]

why does entertainment matter?

[milo]

Why does anything matter.

[QDeathstar]

^ I'm with Holden

[rowens]

I just got done watching Gone With the Wind on TCM. I told my friend who I gave $200 to sit and watch it with me that if I die by sunrise tomorrow, he will tell everyone that all my poetry was based on my love for Scarlett O'Hara. If I never make a comment on this site again, I hope people here will say: 1, My library destroyed all books. 2, I went back in time and found nothing I wanted. 3, Though I went all the way back in time, Scarlett O'Hara is still a fictional character when I got there, so what the fuck?

[Leanne]

We'll also say that he didn't hang out with people who sold their friendship cheaply.

[rowens]

Plus, the library destroyed all the X-Files DVDs. And both the X-Files and Twin Peaks were supposed to be coming back this year. So I don't want to go out on a limb. In a year when both The X-Files and Twin Peaks are coming back, I can't help but go out on a limb to seem relevant, and there are not enough trees where I am for that. Monstervision/with Joe Bob Briggs was cancelled years ago, so I'm crying.

---

I'm trying to remember something so obscure that no one will ruin it for me.

---

I have been yet informed that the new Twin Peaks has been moved to 2017. So excuse me. Me and David Lynch aren't pals. So forgive me. I'm so embarrassed.

---

I have no idea what Qdeathstar was talking about. That's part of why.

[billy]

right at this minute after reading some posts in this thread; i'm scared.