"When it comes to imaginative literature, our time is best spent with works that both "delight and instruct," a phrase primarily associated with the Roman writer Horace (65-8 B.C.E.), used in one version or another by many other critics. Aristotle explained that literature doesn't get in the way of understanding real life, it actually helps us understand real life. Appreciating imitation- and any form of representation- is an intellectual virtue. Reading and studying literature, therefore, does not detract from understanding reality, but actively contributes to your knowledge of truth. You learn something about reality by looking at imitations of it."
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