Learning how writing was invented is certainly a step towards understanding the origin of novels.

studying the behaviour of a monkey when introduced to a typewriter doesn't. Studying the formation of a few molecules in a controlled environment hardly explains how living forms came to exist.

If you never learn where a few molecules came from, how could you possibly make progress on the problem?

we made substantial progress in biology before we understood molecules. this is because it's not necessary to be entirely reductive to understand larger systems.

Yes, but we're talking origin of life.

A better analogy, but it still can be steered toward, "...without a Writer. This is why there is a Writer." Capital intentional.