Michael Orthofer: preference

Transcript context

…But say we think of it in marginal terms. You know, I’m an economist, so if I say, “Well, reading Hamlet, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Jane Austen” — of course that was essential for one’s own education, to speak to other people. The core — I don’t know if you’d quite call them ideas — but inspirations in those works move people’s lives. But at the margin, given how much you read — and you know, I read a fair amount of fiction, too — how much value is there really for that marginal work of fiction, given the regularity of patterns of stories that we see? What is it you get out of the marginal work of fiction? Well, it varies. I mean, I have to admit that a great deal that I read I don’t get that much out of. And you really — I think one of the reasons I do read as much as I do is because it really takes that whole mass to really find all the different things you’re looking for in it. But I definitely think it really expands my horizons in a way that other things can’t. Travel, talking to people, meeting people, reading the newspaper, following current events — those things obviously also help you understand the world better, but I think fiction adds a totally different dimension to it. And truly great fiction really can take you much farther than other things can, I think. There’s a book I read a review of — I’m sure you’ve heard of it, maybe read it — Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings. Very positive reviews, right? It’s 704 pages, and they’re fairly dense pages. I thought of reading the book, and then I sat down and I said to myself, “With the time it would take me to read this book, I could fly to Jamaica and spend an additional three days.” I’ve only been to Jamaica once. And therefore, it didn’t make sense for me to read the book. How do you feel about that reasoning?…

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