Culture is about many things, one of which is aesthetics. The idea that creative arts are valued by some absolute aesthetic quality is to ignore not only the ch

Culture is about many things, one of which is aesthetics. The idea that creative arts are valued by some absolute aesthetic quality is to ignore not only the changing nature of quality itself, but also all the other purposes that art has. Art is also about commentary on the current culture, and that is just as good a reason to produce it as any. Not everything has to reach for the sublime, some people are just trying to illuminate something rather small and innocuous in a fairly humble manner and if their audience is small, no matter. As to the question of if we need more books, given we have more of a high quality than one person could read in a lifetime, like I said, quality isn't everything. I want books that comment on the current world, not just books that are the best written. Also, the idea that there is too much fiction available is a very anglo-centric position. There are many languages around the world where the novel is still relatively novel.