{"id":4749,"date":"2026-09-09T07:03:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T14:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=4749"},"modified":"2026-09-09T07:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T14:03:07","slug":"we-cannot-quantify-the-richness-of-a-nations-literary-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2026\/09\/we-cannot-quantify-the-richness-of-a-nations-literary-life\/","title":{"rendered":"We cannot quantify the richness of a nation\u2019s literary life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the English-speaking world, is there a decline in our literacy and in how people live with literature? For the past while there has been a debate on whether we are losing our literary culture – James Marriott thinks we are at the \u201cdawn of the post-literate society<\/a>\u201d and has a forthcoming book<\/a> that extends the argument. I\u2019ll write up a review when I get my copy, but Henry Oliver has already obtained it, and gives some thoughtful pushback<\/a> on Marriott\u2019s analysis. Who\u2019s right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not sure. My intuition leans towards Marriott, but it is not due to any of the statistical analysis he provides (nor am I comforted by the statistical analyses cited by people who think Marriott has it wrong). And this is because we are in the realm of the unquantifiable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no data that will tell us whether people are reading, understanding, enjoying, discussing with their friends,\u00a0good<\/em>\u00a0books. Because there is no such statistical category. I can look up that in 2025 there were\u00a0over six hundred thousand books<\/a>\u00a0published through traditional means (rather than self-published) in the United States, which seems to me an astoundingly big number, but that doesn\u2019t tell me anything about the number of new works of well-wrought fiction, or poetry, or non-fiction. I can tell you that as of the last survey on public \u201cparticipation<\/a>\u201d in the arts, 46.6% of adults in Indiana read at least some novels, short stories, poetry or plays, but I can\u2019t tell you how much of it was forgettable trash. Yes, it\u2019s true that virtually everybody reads\u00a0something<\/em>, if only on their phones, but that\u2019s not the same, is it? And even if I read good, thoughtful short pieces on the very platform where I first wrote this post, the Substackers worth reading are those who have a deep personal history, and continuing practice, of reading intelligent books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can\u2019t quantify the state of film by looking at annual box office numbers, or counting the number of people who watched a movie last month, or looking at the number of films released. We can\u2019t quantify the state of visual art by the number of new galleries, or auction prices at Christie\u2019s, or what proportion of Michiganders went to a gallery last year. We can\u2019t quantify the cultural life of a city<\/a> (sorry, I mean \u201cvibrancy\u201d) by adding up how many people who call themselves artists live there, or how much money is spent on entertainment there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether there is a decline in meaningful engagement with good books is subjective, and cannot be calculated. It doesn\u2019t mean we cannot say anything<\/em> – the function of criticism is to bring an experienced, closely observant, unbiased eye to new (and old) works of art and music and literature, even if that eye is necessarily subjective (I am Humean<\/a> on this subject). And I think the important question to ask about the current state of literacy is whether there continues to be a wide enough selection of new books that are worthwhile (and I\u2019ll confess I find the evidence from the New York Times<\/em> Book Review rather depressing on that front), and whether there continues to be a healthy critical mass of people who read them. (We could do the same thing for any genre of art). Whether people are increasingly relying on audiobooks, whether new bookstores are opening, with entire shelves devoted to gay hockey player fiction, whether there\u2019s been a recent uptick in sales of The Odyssey<\/em>, are side issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think the question is important – intelligent debate about things that matter (and I don\u2019t just mean political issues) depends on a culture of books, even if not everyone takes part (and clearly not everyone does, or ever did). \u201cTakes\u201d that are found on blogs, or magazines, or op-ed pages of what\u2019s left of newspapers, will only decline in quality as people start thinking they are a sufficient substitute for the depth that can only be found in books – all we will be left with is takes about takes (writes someone composing a take, yes I know!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cross-posted at https:\/\/michaelrushton.substack.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the English-speaking world, is there a decline in our literacy and in how people live with literature? For the past while there has been a debate on whether we are losing our literary culture – James Marriott thinks we are at the \u201cdawn of the post-literate society\u201d and has a forthcoming book that extends the argument. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-issues","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-1eB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1548,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/09\/this-is-not-censorship\/","url_meta":{"origin":4749,"position":0},"title":"This is not censorship (updated, again)","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"September 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The New York Times reports on authors forming a group to back publisher Hachette in its quest to have Amazon.com charge consumers higher prices for books. A literary agent is quoted: \u201cIt\u2019s very clear to me, and to those I represent, that what Amazon is doing is very detrimental to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"this is censored","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/dream-of-ding-village.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1255,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/04\/secrets-of-success\/","url_meta":{"origin":4749,"position":1},"title":"Secrets of success","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"April 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"At Salon, Laura Miller writes about literary scholar Franco Moretti, and his efforts to analyze texts in order to discover what makes a success: Miller: One of the aspects of your work that\u2019s the most counterintuitive at first glance is that you\u2019re not that interested in studying literary masterpieces. You\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"a big data set","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/penguin-cover-george-eliot-middlemarch.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/penguin-cover-george-eliot-middlemarch.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/penguin-cover-george-eliot-middlemarch.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2005,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2016\/03\/selfies-in-the-museum-victorian-edition\/","url_meta":{"origin":4749,"position":2},"title":"Selfies in the museum, Victorian edition","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Pacific Standard reports that \"Surprised museum researchers find many visitors snap photographs of themselves with the masterpieces.\" I'm not sure which researchers are actually surprised by this. But by coincidence I am now reading John Carey's The Intellectuals and the Masses: Pride and Prejudice among the Literary Intelligentsia, 1880-1939. He\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"the end is near","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/selfies.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/selfies.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/selfies.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2910,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2023\/07\/producing-and-exhibiting-arts-as-a-nonprofit-entity-is-a-qualified-tax-exempt-activity\/","url_meta":{"origin":4749,"position":3},"title":"Producing and exhibiting arts as a nonprofit entity is a qualified tax exempt activity","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"July 18, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's what the Internal Revenue Service says: Organizations organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, educational, or other specified purposes and that meet certain other requirements are tax exempt under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3). Organizations whose primary focus is literary or educational are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Mitchell_Opera_House-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Mitchell_Opera_House-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Mitchell_Opera_House-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Mitchell_Opera_House-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Mitchell_Opera_House-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Mitchell_Opera_House-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4628,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2025\/12\/john-careys-what-good-are-the-arts\/","url_meta":{"origin":4749,"position":4},"title":"John Carey’s “What Good are the Arts?”","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"December 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Literary critic and academic John Carey\u00a0died last week at the age of ninety-one. I always enjoyed reading his reviews. If you hadn\u2019t already guessed how the Bloomsbury set and their literary contemporaries viewed common folk, his book\u00a0The Intellectuals and the Masses\u00a0gives you chapter and verse. I enjoyed\u00a0Henry Oliver\u2019s appreciation of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/image.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/image.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/image.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/image.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4671,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2026\/03\/liberal-arts\/","url_meta":{"origin":4749,"position":5},"title":"Liberal Arts","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 23, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"(Kudos to the art director who chose that American flag done with handprints - it\u2019s perfect). I enjoyed reading Becca Rothfield\u2019s \u201cListless Liberalism\u201d in\u00a0The Point, in which she reviews Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson\u2019s\u00a0Abundance, and Cass Sunstein\u2019s\u00a0Liberalism, and also asks the question of why the\u00a0aesthetics\u00a0of a liberal society, barely addressed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-4.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-4.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-4.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4751,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4749\/revisions\/4751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}