Here’s an example of a difference between mere writing and literature.
I’m reading Rogue Cop by William McGivern.
His protagonist, a bent cop, Mike Carmody, has just worked out and before that has played handball.
After, he relaxes, exulting in how good his body feels. And yet he’s enjoying his first cigarette of the day.
Then right after come descriptions of things being “clean”, the weather, certain interiors.
A central conflict in the novel is between Carmody as bent and his late father as righteous and his brother Eddie, also a cop, as righteous.
In mere writing, the oddity of smoking after vigorous exercise, and the contrast between the surrounding cleanliness and Carmody as dirty consistent with the central contrast between Carmody and his brother and father are simply there.
In literature they’re intended, purposeful, in order to amplify and enrich the novel’s themes.
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