“[I]s it possible that so many students find literature tedious because their teachers obviously, despite theatrics to the contrary, find it so Klinkowitz’s antidote for such ennui, as much an occupational hazard for teachers of literature as the bends are for deep-sea divers, has been to befriend and celebrate writers who are still among us, to demonstrate to himself and colleagues and students that literature defines itself as such to readers long before it is embalmed, if ever, by theses and syllabi.”—Kurt Vonnegut, from the Foreword
