Point to ponder

[avevale_intelligencer]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that no-one will ever be in need of a writer.

Discuss, taking care to distinguish between "need" as we might externally perceive it from our civilised standpoint, and need as it would appear to people whose primary concern is survival.

Comments

[batyatoon]

I think it was Sir Philip Sidney in his Defense of Poesy (where "poesy" is being used to refer to the broader field of fiction in general) that the poet cannot possibly be called a liar, since he never affirms anything he says to be true.

Giving fiction to children only teaches them to believe in untruths if you teach them to believe anything they read.