NY Times Book Review asks “Which Force is More Harmful to the Arts: Elitism or Populism?”: Adam Kirsch answers, “Writers write as their minds compel.”

“The truth is, however, that few writers ever make a conscious choice between elitism and populism, difficulty and accessibility. Writers write as their minds and fates compel them to: Virginia Woolf could not have written a populist epic like ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ any more than John Steinbeck could have written a modernist study like ‘To the Lighthouse’ ” (1).

Now the Book Review should ask Adam Kirsch and other contributors to explain how writers’ minds compel them to write as they do.

1. Adam Kirsch. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/books/review/which-force-is-more-harmful-to-the-arts-elitism-or-populism.html