I was going to email you tonight and ask if you were feeling better, so I guess I'll just ask here. Are you feeling better?

Anyway, it's probably no surprise that I agree with what you're saying here. As far as the wheat vs. chaff question, I think it's important to remember, when bemoaning the state of contemporary literature, that there has always been a high ratio chaff to wheat. There has never been a literary period without chaff. It's easy to think that things were better back in some other era, but it's just because we no longer read the chaff of 100 years ago.