In my opinion the author completely mischaracterizes what hipsters and nerds are. Hipster just want to be different, unique, feel that they're not part the mainstream, that is their reason d'être, while nerds are obsessively interested and knowledgeable about a niche topic. The counter-example of someone "obsessive, all-consuming interest in the literature and mysticism of the medieval and early modern eras" would definitely be a nerd of medieval literature. So the definition of nerd as people who love hideous, terrible things, is not only insulting but also inaccurate.
To a degree everything can be subjectively considered bad to the uninitiated.
Also, I believe the reason why book sales are going up except young fiction which is going down is because younger generation have an increasingly shorter attention span, they've grown used to short videos like Tik-Tok, etc so they can't get bother with reading an actual full length book.
I just get chills when I think of the AI generated media (songs, books, movies) in the coming years and decades...
To a degree everything can be subjectively considered bad to the uninitiated.
Also, I believe the reason why book sales are going up except young fiction which is going down is because younger generation have an increasingly shorter attention span, they've grown used to short videos like Tik-Tok, etc so they can't get bother with reading an actual full length book.
I just get chills when I think of the AI generated media (songs, books, movies) in the coming years and decades...