In choosing to read, we agree to make ourselves vulnerable to change, to change of mind, to change of heart. Literature becomes a stepping stone to others and then a microcosm where we can explore their lives. Literature itself provides a stepping stone from the self to the encounter with the other, perhaps the one who is potentially hateable or already hated. It offers an interim experience in knowing, but one that is safe. Intimacy for the reader and the subject, but at a comfortable, controllable distance.
Literature also provides a microcosm for general review of the status quo on an issue, on a people.
It gives an opportunity to see, hear, taste, that is, to feel and to understand, to love, fear, and know others. Literature suspends or softens the obviously pedagogical into the aesthetic and the entertaining. It overcomes emotional neutrality. Literature can make the abstract real and personal because it creates individual memories. Literature is the best vehicle for educating against hatred because we all understand a story, from the tiniest child to the most sophisticated leader.