It seems as though the universe went out to get an answer my question of why exactly it is still important to experience the cultural equivalent of steak when there are more than enough Big Macs going cheap. The Guardian reported yesterday:
“A team from Manchester University and the London School of Economics claim that stories and their writers can do just as much as academics and policy researchers, perhaps even more, to explain and communicate the world’s problems. Fiction, they boldly venture, can be just as useful as fact.”
“The list of novels whose literary power is bound up with their power to push social change is potentially huge. Dickens, of course, is an obvious contender, as is Harper Lee with To Kill A Mockingbird.”
I haven’t read the full report, but I dare say they probably didn’t include Don’t Mess With The Zohan as an example of how art could heal the rift between Israel and Palestine.