In some ways we are 30-50% literate now which means I completely agree with you. I only meant the above about the literate 18 year old. If a 17 year old kid wit

In some ways we are 30-50% literate now which means I completely agree with you. I only meant the above about the literate 18 year old. If a 17 year old kid with a 3.2 GPA can't follow the prose without a headache then it isn't the same kind of writing that Tolstoy did. That's not to say that same person would appreciate the content of the novel in its richness.