[UA] War of the bibliomancers

[Rayburn, Russell E.]

Steven King's recent award from the National Book Foundation has stirred up
a controversy you might, or might not, have heard of:

http://www.stephenking.com/pages/news/medal091503.html
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2003/09/24/
dumbing_down_american_readers/
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1119/p01s03-ussc.html
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2003-11-20-king-usat_x.htm
http://www.horror.com/php/article-93-1.html

Short version: National Book Foundation decides to award prize to King.  

Harold Bloom, literary critic and Yale professor decries the award, saying
"[t]he publishing industry has stooped terribly low to bestow" such an award
on King. He went on to say that King's books "sell in the millions but do
little more for humanity than keep the publishing world afloat." 

King responds with "...And he took aim at those "who make it a point of
pride" to say that they've never read best-selling authors such as John
Grisham, Tom Clancy or Mary Higgins Clark.

"Do you think you get social brownie points for staying out of touch with
our culture?" he asked."

So this has me picturing a war between bibliomancers; one with a collection
of the classics ( and he would snobbily deride any living author as a hack )
and another with a collection of pop fiction ( who derides the first
bibliomancer as an ivory tower clown who couldn't make enough money from his
writing to get a latte and therefore attacks those who can ).

Whatcha think?

-Rus