The point about the most recent story here, "The Machine," is to show how rigidly controlled and unexciting literature is today. To me, "hipsters" embody cultural lethargy. The laptop set looks uptight. They'll soon be superceded. They'll have to be, or American culture will die from lack of energy.
Since 1960-- fifty years ago!-- no art has undergone less change than literature. The institutions erected to support literature have imprisoned it. Great big unreadable postmodern novels are still considered the apex of the art. New Yorker stories are still New Yorker stories. Bland academic poetry is still bland academic poetry.
The world rockets forward. Our nation's insular, elitist literature stands still.
Except here.
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