Maxims on Literature: An Experiment. Maxims are short, pithy statements of the truth. They are not a standard academic form, but I have found composing them intellectually useful. Sometimes the best approach to a subject is not to take up a thesis about it but simply to say all the things you can think of that might be true. It is liberating to pursue individual thoughts for their own sake without having to worry about how they are connected. Maxims for students of literature is perennially a work-in-progress in which I attempt to say basic things about basic concepts in literary study–concepts like character, plot, metaphor, and so on. The form invites speculative abandon and I have taken advantage of that.