What is happening now is the revenge of the market. A high literary culture, utterly divorced from economic realities, was artificially propped up for fifty years. In rather more technical terms, American literary culture is an inefficient market; its products are overpriced, and there aren’t many buyers for them at any rate. As the air goes out of the higher education bubble, the literary life as fantasized by the New York Times’s attractive young literary cubs is deflating along with it.
Saturday, December 03, 2011
Plus ça change ...
... Everything Old Is New Again - Commentary Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
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As tedious as I find those kids, there's hope for them. The Times story suggests that, whatever else they know or don't know, they're learning that being the literary equivalent of the Company Man is no way to become an interesting writer or critic. They may yet think original thoughts.
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