Blammo. Dammit, I wish I had heard of Jenkins ages ago. The following excerpt pretty much arcs across where I’ve come from (‘What’s wrong with trying to define artists’ books?’) to where I’m going (“How can we help people find their own ways through media — or in some way support their own agency in doing so?”) So here’s Henry Jenkins from the linked page:

The Interstitial Arts Foundation: Essays: On the Pleasures of Not Belonging

Over the course of the 20th century, however, genre categories have become ever more specialized as media industries refine techniques for monitoring and targeting particular clusters of consumers. These more rigid and precise subgenres are the product of a more general tendency towards what anthropologist Grant McCracken calls “specification.” Subcultures break down into smaller subcultures, niches become smaller niches in an eternal dance between our desire to differentiate ourselves from and affiliate ourselves with others who share our tastes. There are more different categories of books, records, and films than ever before; all that diversity produces an anxiety that is being met by more aggressive policing of boundaries. Using more sophisticated tools, media consumers are trying to find the “perfect choice,” rather than taking for granted that a work designed for a general audience is going to contain some things we like and some things we don’t.

Go read. There’s lots more.