What sets off literary works / from other narrative display texts / is that they have undergone a process of selection: / they have been published, reviewed, and reprinted, / so that readers approach them / with the assurance that others have found them / well constructed and 'worth it'.

So for literary works, / the cooperative principle is 'hyper-protected'.

We can put up with many obscurities and apparent irrelevancies, / without assuming that this makes no sense.

Readers assume that in literature / complications of language ultimately have a communicative purpose / and, instead of imagining that the speaker or writer is being uncooperative, / as they might in other speech contexts, / they struggle to interpret elements / that flout principles of efficient communication / in the interests of some further communicative goal.

'Literature' is an institutional label / that gives us reason to expect / that the results of our reading efforts will be 'worth it'.

And many of the features of literature / follow from the willingness of readers / to pay attention, / to explore uncertainties, / and not immediately ask 'what do you mean by that?'