It is said that in the years 2000 + 20, literature has rejected depth for surface; at least in ‘New World’ societies of shallow tradition. From the United States, we hear that the sign of the times is “reality hunger”, an aesthetic not of exploration, but of affect; a structure not of intricate plot, but of plotlessness; of facts that eclipse imagination. If serious fiction is outsold by nonfiction, genre fiction and self-help books, what might be ‘fiction's response’? I turn to the minority form of the fictional repertoire – poetry – to ask: might poetry suggest a contract between fiction's response and the society?

中文翻译：

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选集的故事：“分离社会中的结合？”

据说在2000+20年代，文学拒绝深度为表面；至少在传统肤浅的“新世界”社会中是如此。从美国，我们听说时代的标志是“现实饥饿”，一种审美不是探索，而是情感；一个不是复杂情节的结构，而是无情节的结构；使想象力黯然失色的事实。如果严肃小说的销量被非小说、体裁小说和自助书籍超越，那么“小说的反应”可能是什么？我转向虚构剧目的少数形式——诗歌——来问：诗歌是否暗示了小说回应与社会之间的契约？