Why is poetry important (or not)?

Ah, so right. I fact-checked that. Apparently, Kafka was born in what is now Czechkoslovakia, but was then part of the Austrian Empire. Live and learn - at least we hope so. When I wrote the thread intro, I was actually thinking of movies. Through the end of the 40's, American film had the bad guy lose, the good guys win, and the hero rode off into the sunset. By the 70's, there was lots of gore, the bad guys often won (i.e., Chinatown), and the reeealy bad guys seemed invincible - Freddy Kruger, et. al. I think this presaged a slow change in the American psyche from optimism to dread. Apparently, today's high schoolers have the attitude that the world sucks and that nothing can be done to stop the ills of society. What a contrast from the 1960's! Thanks for the info. Alcuin