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What would it be the cause of that??

This sounds like a question you might be asked after reading Fahrenheit 451. I think of literature as being art crafted using words. Reading for information only would be dull. Good literature allows one to escape reality for a period of time, to get into the story and allow the characters to come to life. Poetry allows one to experience the emotions of the writier as they felt during the writing of the poem.

Life without literature would be drudgery. There would be routine and mechanized order and no beauty. I can imagine that life without literature would also be life without song as most song lyrics would fall into the category of literature.  I am thinking of the Puritan writers of early America. They wrote in a very realistic style in journals and day books. It was monotonous and mechanized record keeping.

If there were no literature, there would at least be some written record of governmental affairs. People don't necessarily need literature in their lives, as it does not impact them on a daily basis.

One of the most important values of literature is that it helps us understand ourselves and other people. It would be more than difficult to think of a single human emotion or conflict that hasn't been explored in a great poem, play, novel, or short story. Literature connects us to each other and creates a sense of not being alone in our feelings and experiences. There is much value in that. Without literature, we would be denied the greatest writers asking, and answering in their view, some of the most profound questions of life--answers which we can then accept or reject, after considering them.

Literature can impact our daily lives in important ways, directly or indirectly. It can help shape our view of the world, of other people, and of ourselves. One novel that comes to mind right now is To Kill a Mockingbird. Published at a very significant time in our history, that novel (and the movie version that followed) surely affected the thinking of many during the turbulent times of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. I'm sure its message of human dignity and social justice reached more Americans in a more powerful way than all the newspaper stories and magazine articles of the time. Literature connects us to our own humanity.

This probably varies.  People who never read, who get their entertain from other media, would probably tell you that its value is overrated; most English teachers and other readers would probably tell you that it's one of the most important human activities, creating characters and situations that shed light on our own condition while entertaining us at the same time.

The way I look at it, there is a common experience here that is more important than the technique/media:  the need to tell stories.  Before literature was written, there was oral tradition.  We seem to have a need to share our experiences, both personal and cultural, to entertain and to pass on/examine the values of our culture.

Although we might have a world without literature, I do not think we could have a world without stories.

Honestly, I think we're already seeing the effects of such a world. While a huge volume of literature is still published, the number of people reading that literature is decreasing. I'm not sure if e-books or items like Kindle help that at all; I haven't done any research to see if electronic book sales are on the rise. But I think we're already seeing a certain laziness...I'm not sure how to really explain it. It's like people aren't willing to go beyond turning on a TV or a computer for their knowledge.

What I would miss would be the great characters. When reading, one grows attached to those figures and personalities that evolve throughout the novel or short story. I often find myself relating issues or events to literature, be it in my own life or in the classroom as a teaching tool. That kind of relation would be missing without literature.

For me, literature is the staple of the mind. Without it living would be all biological; only the sub-humans don't need literature. We see ourselves variously transfigured in the works of literature. It's a world of multiple mirroring, mirrors reflecting our lived existence from widely diverse angles. Literature makes us sad; literature makes us happy;it consoles us, motivates us, makes us feel and realise things beyond the handy. Without the works of fiction, of drama, of poetry, life of man would be just worth leaving.

Literature arouses in us emotions about things we do not experience in reality, but are only able to perceive through the aid of literature. Thus without literature our experiences and emotions will be limited to only those aroused by contact with the physical world.

Literature expands the size of the our universe that is the universe which is perceived by us and impacts us. Without literature, this universe will shrink back to the normal size of the physical world we are actually exposed to. No doubt this will be a great loss.

I am reminded of the statement "There is more truth in fiction there is in non-fiction."  Governmental recordings mean little and cannot substitute for literature, for as Napoleon declared, "What is history but a fable retold?"  How often has history been interpreted by differing governments, differing political ideologies, etc.? 

But, literature is the true recording of the human experience:  the record of the hearts, minds, and souls of men; the record of cultures.  Without it there would be no true cultural history.  And, how bereft, indeed, people would be without these recordings, without the setting down of what so many feel, so many share with humanity.  This sharing is what so often gives sense and meanings to people's lives.  That others have suffered as one has provides comfort and gives sense to what seems senseless, providing encouragement to a person.  Without literature, people are shallow, separate.  They are not part of the community of man.  Joseph Conrad wrote that "Meaning depends upon sharing."  Literature is this sharing on the level that one needs.

The problem today is that so often people nowadays do not realize that it this very solace and communication that literature provides that they are missing in their lives.  After all, one cannot define what one misses if he/she has never experienced the "cure" in the first place.

My life wouldn't make sense without literature.

Reading Keats, Joyce, Shaw, Wilde, Stoker, Swift, Poe, Byron and Dickens helped me create that inner world to which I am always welcome to visit, and, when I leave, I always leave with a precious gift.

Some of us did not belong to happy households, nor grew up with role models. I, however, was blessed to discover the gifts that came off the minds of these brilliant human beings. Through their magic, I discovered their cultures, their languages, their countries. It was Joyce who showed me Ireland, and Dickens took me to Victorian England. Wilde consistently mocks society, and Byron drags you through the chaos of tragedy.

I tell you, it just wouldn't make any sense (in my case) to live without literature. Life just wouldn't be the same.