July 29, 2005

Venting Steam in the Blogosphere

By WILLIAM PANNAPACKER

Last month I overheard an exchange between the manager of a secondhand bookstore and one of his twentysomething employees.

"The bottom of this box is full of lit-crap."

"Well, just put it outside and keep the other books."

Apparently "lit-crap" is an in-house term for books on literary criticism or "Theory." These soft-cover books, probably used in graduate seminars, were hidden beneath the handsome university-press editions of major authors. The box reminded me of the

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