disclaimer: I've read (but am aware of the premises of) none of the books the article mentions, so I might have misunderstood the message/tone of the article.

disclaimer: I've read (but am aware of the premises of) none of the books the article mentions, so I might have misunderstood the message/tone of the article. > Like all real literature, it aims above all to tell a truth, however roughly it goes down. I wish this statement and its ilk were less common; in my opinion it's either a platitude or false. For example, another plausible raison d'etre: to share an observation. It's not hard to think of others. Now you could say there's necessarily some higher truth encoded in any meaningful observation. But, in my opinion, that line of reasoning ends with the quoted statement being a platitude. This point could be pedantry, but I make it because I get the feeling the article's author would say Pausch's "the Last Lecture" is not "real literature" because it's purpose is mostly to make people feel good.