One of the reasons literary fiction is becoming a lost art, I think, is due to how difficult it is to write about fiction. That difficulty extends to the discussion of fiction. I'm not sure if that is because information has become more important in our daily lives, and we have therefore augmented our ability to construct and discuss fact-based narratives, at the expense of literary discussion, or if literature innately encourages a certain intimacy. In either case, we have lost the ability to appreciate literature's power of private influence in our lives.