The power of literature

I'm currently reading the book "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by Azar Nafisi, which basically is about teaching English literature in Iran during and after the Islamic Revolution. It is also about the power of literature.

Yesterday on the subway I read a section in which the head of the department of English literature at the University of Tehran took an unprecedented and highly dangerous step of testifying at a former student’s trial at the Revolutionary Court. (The former student, then a prison guard, was alleged to have beaten and tortured political prisoners.) The professor informed the court of his former student’s kindness and compassion towards those less fortunate. “I believe it is my duty as a human being,” he said, “to acquaint you with this aspect of the accused’s personality.” Later, another student paid tribute to the professor for this act, and what she wrote is very interesting:

Such an act can only be accomplished by someone who is engrossed in literature, has learned that every individual has different dimensions to his personality … Those who judge must take all aspects of an individual’s personality into account. It is only through literature that one can put oneself in someone else’s shoes and understand the other’s different and contradictory sides and refrain from becoming too ruthless. Outside the sphere of literature only one aspect of individuals is revealed. But if you understand their different dimensions you cannot easily murder them … If we had learned this one lesson from [him] our society would have been in a much better shape today.