Although I haven’t read anyone who has been explicit about why some people turn to literature during a crisis, I suspect that implicit in these literary resurrections is an understanding that “the news” and “facts” are impersonal, and even when they are advertised as personal, they fill a slot, the “heart-warming story,” for example—half a minute on an adorable toddler waving through the glass at Grandpa, or a noble nurse on “the front lines,” or the sweet young woman who carries groceries for the old lady next door. They are intended as a momentary lift for reader or viewer “at home.” The emotional manipulation is calculated. When it is good, literature moves the personal into other territory altogether and in the process becomes collective.

– Siri Hustvedt on Fairy Tales and Facts at Lit Hub [via Føljteton]