(urth) silk, the dancing toy, gods in the tunnels

[Marc Aramini]

Last post this morning - the intro to Enangered Species and several other essays indicate a vague hostility to an academic environment that promulgates the cult of dead authors.  Yet ironically the current trend of colleges to emphasize modern stuff that students can relate to would be, possibly, equally inimical to the traditional texts that Wolfe reveres. I can't help thinking that it is in particular the sophisticated New Wave and the sf of the 60s and 70s that he is really writing about.  All these trendy modern texts that are being assigned to students might match up with Wolfe's big point in his intro, and yet ... Current trends feel so intellectually impoverished, bargain basement, and devoid of a traditional awareness of continuity.