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On the point about 'high school intellectualism' it struck me recently that most heroes in classic novels are now considerably younger than I am, and that while I once related to their energy, anger, etc., I find that more difficult now unless I try to remember how I was when I 1st read them. Raskolnikov makes sense to a young man coping with his own superman complex but less so when things like ambition seem less and less important. So in many ways I'd say most novels are a bit 'high school' in that theyire generally written by young men and women and as such overwhelmingly tend to concentrate on anxieties unique to their generation.
Obviously I can think of plenty of great novels that don't qualify but I'd still say they're very much in the minority.
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