A few weeks ago, the literature blog HTMLGiant hosted a heated discussion about whether or not difficult modernist novels like James Joyce’s Ulysses might find a publisher in today’s literary marketplace. Of the hundreds of responses to the thread and its follow-ups, the one that interested me most was Justin Taylor’s assertion that modernism’s true heir was born in 1980 in southern New Jersey, lived in Brighton Beach, and was in the midst of a period of extraordinary productivity despite an absolute lack of any significant critical attention.