Hmm …

… Is the Library of America Dumbing Down? - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Well, I think that Elmore Leonard made a definite contribution to the form of the crime novel, a contribution that may well be more widely applicable, and he has some classy admirers (Saul Bellow, Martin Amis), and Philip K. Dick is interesting, I think, as a literary curiosity. That said, dumbing down seems to be what this society is doing these days. Plenty of pop artists deserve to be taken seriously. The problem is not that. The problem is not paying sufficient attention to other great art. In classical music, this can be seen in concert programming. The new stuff is mostly slick sound effects. No real attempt is being made to refresh the repertoire with the great music of the 20th century — the symphonies of Martinu, Malcolm Arnold, or Edmund Rubbra, to name just three, or the glorious music of Lou Harrison. Instead, there's the dead-end of Schoenberg or the tedious bombast of Shostakovich. Why doesn't somebody program Ned Rorem's three symphonies, which are wonderful?