The Times columnist James Marriott joins me to discuss the decline of reading comprehension, the risk-averse publishing industry, the addictive nature of digital media, a new Dark Age of literacy, and why ambitious young people should still pursue writing careers. Hope you enjoy!

You can find the transcript of our conversation here.

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Show Notes:

(00:00) Guest Introduction

(01:18) Cultural Pessimism as a Source of Hope

(05:53) The Death of Ambient Culture

(11:59) The Proliferation of Junk Text

(15:10) The Last Great Novelists

(23:47) Risk-averse publishers remove allusions from Books

(27:39) If Dickens Tried to Publish Today

(30:44) Can Anyone Read Dickens Anymore?

(39:32) The Attention Economy vs. Human Relationships

(42:45) Humanities as the Cultural Capital

(48:32) The Kafka/Larkin model: boring day jobs enable artistic risk-taking

(51:29) Start now, don’t wait for permission

(55:23) Pessimistic Optimism instead of a Relentlessly Upbeat Culture

James Marriott: The Hope in Great Books