I have always thought that "acceptance" and "standards," were diametrically opposed. When you just accept things that are different from your own opinion, to take a safe example,the existence of " other kin," you're eschewing logic and reason in favor of compassion (or of fear of being bullied by liberal agenda.) I remember ten years ago when I was in high school , there were a lot of articles about how our generation has been taught that each of us is special, and to focus more on subjective, rather than objective truths. Couple this with the current constant bombardment of "acceptance," and it's no wonder people are going to say that there is no such as thing as "good literature," as maddening as that may sound. Of course, we can get way more pessimistic than that. When you can feed people garbage music with auto tuned vocals, cheap lyrics, and recycled hooks, and make how many millions with another hackneyed Marvel film, why would anyone in the corporate world push standards? Worse, I've been reading and hearing that a lot of college professors have their hands tied when trying to teach controversial naterial. Students today are so oversensitive, that almost anything offends them, and since they now are very aware that they are the customers, they won't hesitate to complain. I have no idea how well this complaint applies to literature, but I do remember you saying they do teach twilight in schools now? So yeah, more acceptance means less standards. And standards are bad for business, anyway. * note, I am not saying an accepting society is a bad one. Acceptance that is steered by intellectualisation and thought(standards) is good. Acceptance that is steered by bullies is bad.
Yes, they do. And Buffy the Vampire Hunter - did at my undergrad university. It's not all a universities' fault, they are between a rock and a hard place, especially if they are not a redbrick (or Ivy League, as in the States) and cannot exist solely in their reputation, they need to appeal to what is going on in mass culture to get the students, to get the funding, to keep existing.
Gee, I sure hope basing stories on absurdities isn't a recipe for failure. Everything I write is absurd. Hell; even this response to this thread has its absurd aspects.
