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Why Bother?", originally published as "Perchance to Dream: In the Age of Images, a Reason to Write Novels", is a literary essay by American novelist Jonathan Franzen. It is often referred to as "The Harper's Essay".
Most of the essays previously appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Details, and Graywolf Forum.In the introductory essay, "A Word About This Book," Franzen notes that the "underlying investigation in all these essays" is "the problem of preserving individuality and complexity in a noisy and distracting mass culture: the question of how to be alone."
Jonathan Earl Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel The Corrections drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award , was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist, earned a James Tait Black Memorial Prize , and was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award .
His new novel, 'Crossroads,' is extraordinary, immersive, even fun. But it makes you wonder what Franzen might accomplish if more were at stake
Jonathan Franzen, pictured at the Times Festival of Books in 2022, is well known for his defense of highbrow novels in a famous essay that ran in Harper's. (Alisha Jucevic / For The Times)
Why Bother? may refer to: "Why Bother?" (essay), 1996 essay by American novelist Jonathan Franzen "Why Bother?" (song), 1996 song from Weezer's album Pinkerton;
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How to Be Alone, a 2002 book by Jonathan Franzen; How to Be Alone, a 2014 book by Sara Maitland; How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don't, a 2018 book by Lane Moore "How to be alone", a 2016 poem by Donika Kelly; in other media: How to Be Alone, a 2016 short film; How to Be Alone, a 2009 short film by Andrea Dorfman