Commentary For the last 50 or 60 years in the humanities and intellectual spheres, the main goal, value, method, technique, motivation—whatever you want to call it—has been this: to uncover latent meanings in seemingly neutral or obvious texts, images, ideas, or practices. That has been the especial talent of teachers and scholars and critics. A well-trained mind, it was decreed, should be able to discern embedded biases and sedimented values in many places. He can take what’s commonly understood as natural, normal, objective, or traditional and show that it’s not at all what it appears to be. For instance, the old canon of the Great American Novel—Hawthorne, Melville … Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Ellison—for much of the mid-20th century was a standard high school subject, presented as more or less settled, the best stories told in the most profound and significant ways, uniquely American. Who could deny the force of Captain Ahab …