The Last Page

The Last Page

Not long ago I attended a conference on the theme, “Are serious books in serious trouble?” The question was rhetorical. One by one the suspects were arraigned on charges: publishing conglomerates, superstores, television, public education. By the end American culture itself was on trial, and some of the jeremiads sounded like big-picture attacks on imperialism, with the roles of Nixon, Kissinger, and the International Monetary Fund filled by Viacom, Rupert Murdoch, and Barnes and Noble. Noam Chomsky was frequently invoked as the prime example of a serious writer with books in serious trouble.