In My Dinner With Andre, Andre proposes that we're entering a new Dark Ages, which may last a long time, and those of us interested in preserving high culture must hide out in isolated enclaves, protecting the artifacts of culture, even as some of us add to them; we have to lay low, waiting for a new enlightenment. In a different context, Morris Berman says today the best writing is necessarily underground because the mainstream culture won't admit it's dying, which is the starting point for writing about reality.
This is as hopeful as it gets.
