In current-day criticisms of consumer culture as well as of the performativity culture of the work place, the originally religious concept of the vice of acedia or sloth is reinterpreted as a virtue. Art, especially poetry, is put to the fore in that connection. The image of the reader is addressed when the question of the relationship between…

Discusses whether books and reading as a leisure activity have a future, noting the impact of the modern mass media, especially television; highlighting the loss of the rich tradition of the western humanities and the educational significance of this tradition; and looking at the humanities, the novel, and the death of the novel. (SM)