Is it possible that those in the cultural sphere want the public to love them a bit too much? Or, put more directly, do we risk alienating those who merely see the arts and literature as a pleasant diversion with unceasing paeans to the glory of cultural engagement? It’s an important question: “If literature is to survive beyond the next few years, assailed as it is by the triple whammy of brutal economics, shrinking attention spans and unrelenting competition from less demanding pastimes, it will survive as much because of book likers as book lovers.”