Literature as Encouragement

"Literature as Encouragement" is a brief article in the 10th anniversary edition of Index on Censorship, printed in December 1981 along with "Two Letters," consisting of "Dear Mr. McCarthy" and "Dear Felix" from the collection Palm Sunday.

Summary

Doubting that literature has ever defeated repression and that tyrannies are historically overcome by force and violence, Vonnegut does note that literature can encourage "repressed people to behave as proudly and honourably and humanely as possible, under the circumstances." It can provide models for how society and citizens could be and is thus at odds with dictatorships. This is not because writers as a group are great supporters of freedom, but because readers want stories of humans as intelligent and capable, making their own decisions about life. Autocrats, however, need subjects with negative attitudes toward human beings, both themselves and others, as creatures "unworthy of justice and dignity and privacy and independent thinking." Interesting literature cannot help but "weaken self-loathing" and is thus dangerous.