/lit/ - Literature

Can we use this thread thread to talk about the eerie fact that stuff like The Inklings hasn't existed since the '70s and people like Barfield, Tolkien, and Lewis don't exist anymore either? Isn't anyone but me freaked out that the "cream of the crop" of modern day if Stephen Pinker, Lawrence Krauss, and Elon Musk? Even if you hate T.S. Eliot or Ezra Pound or Knut Hamsun or whoever, you can't deny that EVERY country, even minor shitholes, had like two dozen significant intellectuals. Fuck, we can't even eke out an Umberto Eco anymore these days.

You can't read about any little shithole in the 1920s without hearing about half a dozen semi-interesting literary and intellectual circles. Back then, there was an infinite galaxy of intellectuals you could simply write a letter to, and if you were at least a bit interesting yourself you would be "on the radar."

What do we call whatever it is that we have now? The age of anonymity? We have five times as many people and one five thousandth as many notable geniuses or semi-geniuses, and our ultra-rare geniuses and semi-geniuses are one fiftieth as potent.

What confluence of factors explains this? Why are sociologists all doing dumb irreplicable studies of shit no one cares about instead of studying the fact that humanity has collectively turned to mush in 50 years?