Literary merit

Literary merit is a debatable issue even among the literati. Merit is something that is held up as praise-worthy, regarded in esteem and generally accepted as something to be emulated. Merit in literature must first of all be concerned with the use of the language to deal with the human condition at a depth not achievable in ordinary speech or the ordinary use of the language. It is not just the skill in story-telling, if you consider fiction, but to use the narrative form to evoke like sentiments in the reader that the characters are feeling, to create in the mind of the reader a deep sense of the ambience in the story; in the modern phrase, to generate an immersive experience. This requires a great skill in using the right words in correct combination to achieve the desired effect - to inform, to direct the senses, to captivate by the power of the words, to evoke empathy, to gratify the urge to read and draw pleasure from the written word - all these things become important in a literary work. While the story is important, how it is told is perhaps more important from the merit point of view.
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