The profit motive in literature – to claim that such a motive exists, motivates, inspires and even shapes literature, that might be to ring the death knell for literature. Our literati are accomplished critics of Gatsbys and Iagos, but hypocrites, too. Ultimately, no demonstable reason exists for writing a novel like The Great Gatsby instead of a maxim, or a series of aphorisms or proverbs warning against a life devoted to the pursuit of lucre, recognition and woman. The novel animates the underlying opinion that tragedy follows wherever the author’s view is ignored, but who is to say that the novel has persuaded anyone against the pursuit of lucre, recognition and ‘love’? Only one thing is certain: the public will not pay for maxims and aphorisms. It demands blood – flesh and blood characters. And—by and large, people love to look down and judge characters that are monstrous exaggerations of vice, because such characters make more common manifestations of vice easier to overlook. Thus, a novel intended to bring the public’s attention to a vice might actually help readers ignore all those expressions of vice that are—perhaps—less worthy of a novel, or are just slightly different from those proper to a tragic hero.
In short, tragedy as a moral device in fiction might be counterproductive, and for that reason it should be spurned until someone can prove otherwise.
But authors must make a living. Yes, but before that, let them attend to their dying.
