Other people have to understand it. When many writers were banned their books were distributed through Samizdat. People often borrowed books for a night. The attitude towards the written word was different. Now no one reads like this.
Words have different meaning.
People used to believe what they read. In other more sophisticated cultures no one believes in the Word and literature is just its parody . Before, humour and satire laughed at the system. Now we need humour to laugh at mentality. Our culture is not anthropological, but idealist and romantic.