Developing our sympathetic compassion is not only possible but the only reason for us to be here on earth.
Compassion doesn't have to be weak or enabling; it can also be quite bold.
Fiction is a kind of compassion-generating machine that saves us from sloth. Is life kind or cruel? Yes, Literature answers. Are people good or bad? You bet, says Literature. But unlike other systems of knowing, Literature declines to eradicate one truth in favor of another.
I think that fiction has a part to play in urging us, as a species, toward compassion.
