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We caught up with Ben Fountain and asked him about his views on the importance of literature, language, and what we do. Here’s what he said: NewLit: We believe the literary arts are a public good. The world needs artists and teachers. Care to comment? BF: The literary arts aren't mere decoration, entertainment, diversion, although decoration, entertainment, etc. certainly have their place in human life. Literature—and by "literature" I mean writing that gets down into the real stuff of life, the guts and sweat and toil and muck and glory of it--can be all of those things, but it's a necessity as opposed to a luxury. Language is the most elastic, most accessible, most nuanced and durable medium our species has yet developed for understanding ourselves and our experience, and literature embodies language at its most charged and meaningful. Without it we are, quite simply, lost. And a society comprised of people who don't have a clue about who they are or what their experience means is, in my book, pretty much wrecked. NewLit: We say we teach, we engage, we inspire each other through writing. Care to comment? BF: All true, but writing can also be used to obfuscate, mislead, discourage, and destroy. It's very much a double-edged sword that requires not just skill and thoughtfulness to be used constructively, but a strong moral sense as well. And so to go one step further and state the obvious, we need teachers and institutions who will do that essential teaching. NewLit: How do you think NewLit contributes to the lives of writers and to the health of a democratic society? BF: To have any chance of success, the American democratic project requires clear seeing, clear thinking, clear expression, otherwise it's doomed. To see reality for what it is, clearly, unflinchingly, and then to articulate that reality in language that fully captures the truth and complexity of a particular aspect of human experience, that's the basis for whatever long-term success we're going to have as a truly democratic country. Just looking at the numbers alone—in fellowships, workshops, classrooms, expenditures, etc.—NewLit's record is extraordinary by any measure. It's my sense that thanks to NewLit, a LOT of people are being introduced to the possibilities of literature who might not otherwise have had the opportunity. Which turn raises another dimension of the democratic project, namely, imagination and possibility. It's the nature of authoritarian or totalitarian regimes to constrict our imaginations, to winnow the realm of possibility down to a very few things that serve to keep the powers that be in power. Whereas a democracy necessarily depends on imagination, both individual and collective. We don't have to be restricted to the present factual. We can keep--we need to keep--imagining more and better, keep expanding the realm of the possible. It's no accident that authoritarian regimes are in the habit of banning and burning books. NewLit: How would you like to see NewLit grow in the future and capitalize on what we have already done? BF: I can answer that in one word: MORE. NewLit strikes me as an organization that's very much hitting on all cylinders. You wanna make a great race car even greater? Amp up the horsepower and give it the gas.
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