Salon: why are literary criticism and cultural gatekeepers important?

[miriam1978]

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2008/05/22/critics/index.html

The piece's actual title is a bit more dramatic: "Who killed the literary critic?" Happily, Louis Bayard and Laura Miller don't blame the blogosphere.

[Spoiler alert: the critic isn't dead, just endangered.]