All these Gravestones on My Shelves

It seems like a defense of literature comes out just about every week. They usually come from a professor at an esteemed institution and arrive adorned with ecstatic praise and promises.

The Use and Abuse of Literature by Harvard Professor Marjorie Garber is a recent example. As is All Things Shining by Hubert Dreyfus (Berkeley) and Sean Dorrance Kelly (also Harvard).

I often enjoy these books, but not without a certain sadness. Whether or not this is a profitable publishing niche, these books feel more and more like gravestones, and less and less like living conversation (whatever that is). This observation could perhaps also apply to the posts on this blog. But better to read gravestones than nothing at all.