Last week, the University of Minnesota announced with much fanfare that it would pay $750,000 to acquire the personal archive of author Robert Bly. But at least one observer says the acquisition is yet another example of academia’s disconnect from truly good writing. “The literature and creative writing departments of our universities deserve a lot of the blame for this. For decades now, they’ve lavished praise and professorships on authors who dress up tedium with tortured syntax and mystical posturing, the sort who — like Bly — promulge the stereotype that contemporary literature is a pursuit suited only for pseudo-intellectuals in silly vests who go into raptures at the prospect of yet another eight page description of a snowy day.”