Look carefully at the photo. It's allegedly a work of art. The collection of junk is placed in front of Philadelphia's prestigious University of the Arts. No, it's not "shocking." Thousands pass by it every day, and think nothing. They're certainly not elevated or enlightened by it. The student who produced it is likely from a middle-class background, and knows only the stupidity he or she has been taught. "Art" has become a con game, justification for overpaid positions in academic bureaucracies.
In a similar way, too many of today's literary works are ugly. I've reviewed a couple of them at my review blog, http://www.blitzreview.blogspot.com/. They're not simply ugly on the surface. The writer's task, after all, is to encompass within his view that ugliness. But too many of today's stories and novels are also ugly from within. They're spiritually dead. Dead matter, so when you read them you feel that deadness.
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