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Quite a topsy-turvey musing and not at all bad. Really tries to get into the meat of the concept of an English major. However, I find the following rather funny in simply how wrong it is:

>And so with English departments: if we closed down every English department in the country, loud, good, expert, or at least hyper-enthusiastic readers would still emerge. One sees this happening already, in the steady pulse of reading groups and books clubs which form, in effect, a kind of archipelago of amateur English departments.

From what I've read (ha!), long-form reading is steadily on the decline and shows no sign of slowing down. Sure, there are a few prestige outlets experimenting with formats to engage audiences, and investigative journalism is still a worthwhile pursuit, but those are sidebar discussions to what's being asserted above.

No, with technology, now audiences don't have to bother with reading for instruction or entertainment. Simply look at the history of music, and now that entire libraries of material can be put in one's pocket, the scarcity and effort factor of pursuit is nearly extinct. Books were portable. They were cheap to access.

Well, now that multimedia is not only portable but cheap too - streaming audio services, free-to-watch or subscription video services, and user-content generated platforms like Instagram/Twitter/Facebook - I see the long-form reading and thinking avenue on the out.

It makes me sad. It's a lot like the argument against learning to write cursive - sure, it's hard, but it's a challenge that spurs mental development. Long-form reading and critical thinking are inter-twined. Reading for pleasure, in modern times, is drooling over click-bait headlines, and it's not going to turn around anytime soon.