Matías Raia: Literature knows how to wait

I say: “Literature knows how to wait.”

Because there’s no hurry. Books have no urgency. Each one arrives at the right time, or at the wrong time—or is untimely. But it does arrive.

I say: “Literature knows how to wait.”

Because it’s not governed by the now, the right now, by the new. There is nothing you have to read right away; literature does not expire, it has no expiration date.

I say: “Literature knows how to wait.”

Because there’s books that reach their audience five, twenty or fifty years later. And their authors continue to write in the present—though from the past.

Past, present and future are probably not valid categories when it comes to literature.

I say: “Literature knows how to wait.”

Because the anxious readers make for constant attention to new releases. It’s even some kind of praise to be ranked in a list of new releases! Or to be read in a new release book group!

I say: “Literature knows how to wait.”

Because a book edited and published in 2021 can be (should be able to be) read in 2022 or 2025 or 2030. Literature knows neither calendars nor timelines. It speaks to the reader from a timeless time.

That’s why I read new releases from 1963…

I say: “Literature knows how to wait.”

Because I don’t believe in new releases “that you have to read.” No book needs to be read right away. I skip books.

And that’s a good thing. Because, sometimes, later, I find them, in another time, and they say other things.