Out of Print: Kit Wilson on the tyranny of reading

What if the problem of literacy is not its decline, but rather our hyper-literate state? The written word has become a bulwark against experience, with the reading of social media posts or Substack essays is at best a distraction.

In this, the third part of Out of Print, Kit Wilson explores the confusion of the ‘map’ with the ‘territory’ that occludes access to an understanding of things outside of language itself.

⁠⁠⁠Out of Print⁠⁠⁠ was held at Verdurin in June 2026. The symposium was organised with Edmund King.

Kit Wilson is a writer and musician in London. He frequently writes for the Times, The New Satesman, The Critic, and The Spectator. He is currently doing an MA in Philosophy at King’s College London.

Find out more about ⁠⁠Out of Print⁠⁠.

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If you liked what you heard, may enjoy the just-published The New Dark Ages: The End of Reading and the Dawn of a Post-Literate Society by James Marriott, whose commentary is pertinent to Kit’s argument.