No one feels and knows the impact of good literature until he or she experiences it first hand.
When we read Alice Wedega we think we are reading stuff that is conservative, out-dated, irrelevant. But the teachings of this great woman remain as powerfully contemporaneous as ever. When she says, for example, that for a Milne Bay woman the choice is either to serve God or marry, she ain't kidding.
There are no in-betweens. The in-betweens usually spell disaster. Those that are descendants of this great writer must therefore be extremely careful how they conduct themselves and the life style they choose to lead. You either are married or are serving God.
In a Sophoclean drama things are much more tragic than that. Antigone, following the rules of those higher laws, marches forward to meet her fate. In a Shakespearean tragedy it is wise to take heed of the lessons imparted in a young general who calls his would be followers "curs", or a mighty general misled into thinking that his young bride is unfaithful.
And so with us in our country. And how we regard literature.
For those who study literature know that as far as the laws are concerned you are the invisible legislators, your are the unofficial ombudsmen of your society. The literature you create remains as powerful as Shakespeare had willed it in composing Coriolanus or Othello.
And so the message left by Alice Wedega remains as powerful as ever. Listen, and you will never go wrong.
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