Vargas Llosa on the Death of Culture
“It is not surprising that the most representative literature of our times is ‘light,’ easy literature, which, without any sense of shame, sets out to be — as its primary and almost exclusive objective — entertaining. Chefs and fashion designers now enjoy the prominence that before was given to scientists. The vacuum left by the disappearance of criticism has been filled, imperceptibly, by advertising. Today . . . people usually play sports at the expense of, and instead of, intellectual pursuits. Today, the mass consumption of marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, crack, heroin, etc., is a response to a social environment that pushes men and women towards quick and easy pleasure.”
--Notes on the Death of Culture by Mario Vargas Llosa