The Job of Literature Is to Change the World

Northampton and probably most other places at the present moment would seem to be particularly disenchanted that there is no meaning in anything. So one of the duties of literature seems to me, and of art in general, is a real enchantment to lend meaning to these forgotten spaces,. To make them kind of flare with life again. And if you can attach narratives to places, then you are kind of overwriting the reality because when we think about Victorian London, we are not actually thinking about VictorianLondon, are we? We are thinking about Dickens. It is because Dickens managed to overwrite the reality of his day in a way that gave it meaning but was recognizably accurate to the readers