ON A RAINY summer’s morning, eight students and a professor sat around a table at Thomas Aquinas College, a Catholic institution north-west of Los Angeles. They were formally dressed—the men wore ties—and they addressed each other as “Mr” and “Ms”. For hours the group debated “The Bear”, William Faulkner’s tale of a young hunter disillusioned with mankind’s efforts to subdue the land and its creatures. The scene would have delighted anyone who despairs that university students do not, will not and cannot read.
