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.

Important Links:

• JM’s Substack
• X Profile
• James Marriott at The Times

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