Literature Pays Off!

• Antoine Compagnon

View sample
Buy hard copy / 22,00 EUR
Buy e-book / 17,00 EUR
Borrow e-book / 12,00 EUR

Book is added to the cart - finish purchase.

In order to defend the place and role of literature in today’s „modern world“, Antoine Compagnon has chosen a striking title – like a waving flag: aggressive, combative and slightly provocative – Literature Pays Off! The author points out that many people today doubt literature – its value, power, usefulness and future. This doubt often boils down to a simple statement: literature doesn't pay off… or does no longer pay off.
In a society ruled by market forces, the question naturally arises: how much is literature worth as an investment? Or, more precisely, what kind of return and what benefit can reading bring? Reading takes time – a lot of time – and writing even more. We increasingly strive to save time, to speed up and increase productivity.
In the book Literature Pays Off! Compagnon considers literature from two angles – how much profit it brings to the author and how much wealth it provides to the reader – and reminds us of the fact that a well-read person is the author of his own life, and literature is an investment that always pays off.

* * *

The only conceivable productive gain for a writer would be to read less, to save time by limiting his reading. For reading slows down writers, but it also creates them. It is possible, even probable, that writers today read less than before, like the rest of us, who have so many other obligations. But what is a writer who reads less, who reads little, or who reads not at all? Is he still a writer? A writer is fundamentally a reader; a book is made of other books and of reading. If a writer is no longer an avid reader, a maniacal reader, a mad reader, I wonder what literature is like. Ultimately, there is no doubt – and I will return to this in this book – the key is reading. There is no, never has been, and never will be any productive gain in it, there is no hope for one, not yesterday or tomorrow, and that is precisely what makes reading the most fragile activity of our time.

* * *

Culture – not only literature and philosophy, but also art, film, much of what is transmitted on the screen today – allows us to distance ourselves from the demands of work, to dedicate ourselves to work, to be on the street and at the window at the same time, to see how we live and to influence our lives. That is why it is necessary in order to go beyond our initial education, to change our point of view, to turn to other jobs, to seize a new possibility (what we today call an „opportunity“).
General culture offers another kind of intelligence, a kind of clarity or insight, like a kind of scent that a good dog or a fox have. Such scent is not innate, it is cultivated, especially through reading, which provides access to other experiences. Culture gives us a nose. Nothing is more necessary than to find our way, to land on our feet.

Excerpts from the book

• ISBN: 978-953-369-069-8
• Dimensions: 142x205 mm
• Number of pages: 164
• Cover: paperback
• Year of the edition: 2025
• Original title: La littérature, ça paye!
• Original language: French
• Translation: Dubravka Celebrini