Book Terrors...! II

The problem that literature
faces is that its most popular
elements are duplicated
and improved upon
in film, television, and comics.

If you want to know the real
reason why Harry Potter became
so huge, it was because
it was so unusual for books
to create something new
and enticing, because for
so long, we've buried their
impact within mounds
and mounds of obscurity,
so that, sure, people will
read, but only because
they consider it
a cultural necessity.

It's the same thing
that happened to poetry,
which has become such
an isolated activity
(which, again, DFW observed),
it might as well not be
taking place at all,
or in secretive cults,
for anyone cares.

It's just not relevant,
and that's what we've
done to it ourselves.

That's the sort of thing
that really needs
to be addressed,
or I will continue
to be depressed...