Emotions Can't Be Summarised

In a bookshop,
I always see books showing summary of famous world literatures

Explaining the stories in a very short simple way

from Japanese novels to French, German, Russian, British, American, Chinese etc..

Even 10 volumes of a very long historical masterpiece is squeezed into just 100 words

which is almost impressive, but I always don't see the point

---

We read a novel, because we want to experience a journey of the emotions the main character goes through

From this standpoint, what we/readers feel while reading is primary

And the story is a secondary element. Just a helper to bring emotions

Significant difference is;

"Story", which is a series of events, such as "A did this, then B did that" etc.....all these mere dried dead boring information, can be easily shortened

while "Emotions" can't be summarised

---

When we're asked "Please cry now", some people can cry

But when asked "Please be sad now", most of us can't

When asked "Please shout now", many can do

But when asked "Please be angry now", most can't

Because, for emotions, "time" is necessary

"Time" & "event" that triggers it are 2 essential factors for emotions to be produced

In a novel, "time" is page count

We can shorten the story, squeeze 10000 pages into 0.5 page, but through this compression process, the most important part, the most juicy dazzling sizzling element, which is emotions, goes away completely

And the leftover, which is a story summary, a collection of mere dried boring information, is colourless, soulless, lifeless waste