Aesthetician: Zahib' s rejection of contemporary literature' s aesthetic value depends on his claim that today' s writing generally fails to grapple seriously enough with life' s deepest ethical questions -- whereas great books, he maintains, present profound moral lessons and "the stuff of conscience. " But what resounding moral lesson does Vikram Seth' s A Suitable Boy or Devaki Nandan Khatri' s Chandrakanta impart? People read these two great novels because they are engaging, even thrilling, stories. The absence of a profound moral lesson in no way detracts from the aesthetic value of a novel. The aesthetician criticizes Zahib's position by arguing that it depends on the questionable premise that ['only novels that have aesthetic value fail to present profound moral lessons', "today's writing generally fails to confront deep ethical questions", 'for a literary work to have aesthetic value it must present a profound ethical message', 'there is no distinction between engaging stories and profound moral lessons']