Criticism and Evaluation

Abstract

In the millennia-long discussion, Do we cope with storytelling for our pleasure or for our instruction? perhaps the most valuable solution would be not to choose between the two options. When not choosing, it is possible to realize that sometimes it is pleasure, sometimes it is instruction which, in reading, is predominant. And closely associated with such a realization is the discovery that sometimes we learn from our pleasure and, conversely, that the quality of insight which comes from learning provides us with pleasure. By avoiding the initial choice, then, pleasure/instruction can now be conceived of as a relationship, its value resulting from our attaining an undivided base from which to pose several important questions.