In the current issue of New England Review, a highly respected journal, the editor prefaces the issue with a note in which she admits to being captivated by Les Miserables by Victor Hugo [left]. But to get into the book she says she had to overcome obstacles. The musical, for one thing. "Also it's from old white Europe — what news could there be?"
This sentence stopped me in my tracks. And I wanted to ask you, dear reader, how you would sum up your reaction:
(1) Forget it. She was trying to be clever.
(2) The three least appealing words in the language used to be "dead," "poets," and "society." Now they are "old," "white," and "Europe."
(3) Forget it. Who, even among readers of lit journals, reads the editor's note?
(4) Forget it. She is trying to prove that she's virtuous.
(5) Forget it. It's the end of Western Civilization as we know it. (So what else is new?)