No one I know who studies literature for a living (quite a few people) does so because they really love reading and writing about novels, poetry, etc. This has been my sneaking suspension for the past 15 years in this profession and it seriously bums me out sometimes. I have yet to hear a local colleague speak admiringly of a moving novel or poem they’d read (Not including students of course)…Why is that? Are they afraid of sounding dumb or tasteless? Why all this silence about the thing we are supposed to care about?