The Primal Power of Stories That Evoke Yearning and Dread

What family separation can teach us about the emotional core of literature

Photo by Johann Walter Bantz on Unsplash

Primal emotion is the aim of all great writing. By primal I mean the deepest, oldest, and most fundamental wellsprings of human need. And since yearning and dread are the most fundamental of all emotions, they’re essential for serious writers…