Wired has published a short but useful list of what writer Bruce Sterling regards as digital-age difficulties facing “literature” as we have known it these last few centuries. The fact that, “wired” (relatively speaking) as I am, I am unable to follow a couple of his examples may be proof enough of the problem us literary types are having making an impact (let alone making a living) in the workaday wired world.

My favorite (if that’s the word) ot the list, however, has little to do with being “wired” or not:

10. Contemporary literature not confronting issues of general urgency; dominant best-sellers are in former niche genres such as fantasies, romances and teen books.