Because for Americans, everything is a competition and a game of oneupsmanship. And because they fear anyone different from themselves.

It reminds me of being a teenager. 😁

It wasn't always the case. It started in the 1960s with Twiggy.

No "often." Always.

Unfortunately, they look like fashion models and actresses.

And the fact that since the 1960s, fashion models have looked like 15-year-olds.

Because Americans in general dismiss academic research as irrelevant and for whatever reason, educators are among the most virulent and the most authoritarian. When I taught school librarianship students, it was a constant battle to get them to even read the research.

He's also utterly contemptuous of his base. I have never understood how people didn't see that in his "Hillbilly Elegy." It drips with contempt and derision.

That sounds terribly contradictory. Your reasons, other than it being a genre that you don't publish, seem to contradict the statement that it was beautifully crafted from a writer with obvious talent.

Try publishers who don't require an agent. They are out there.

And he knows he's lying.

I can't even ... what's going to happen to the cats?

I'm saying that there are many ways to "grab" a reader and the appropriate beginning depends on what you are writing. Authors of literary fiction can and do begin in the same way that Austen did. A character-driven work will begin differently from a plot-driven work.

I'm not so sure about that. Christie is as popular as ever. Sometimes she begins with a bang, but other times it's more subtle. What we need to do is give the reader a reason to continue reading. It might be a shocking event, or it might be a fascinating character or an intriguing puzzle.

Publishing has been about nothing except making money for decades.

That's what nearly every writer's workshop will tell you, and certainly every agent. Nearly every new book I've tried to read over the past 20 or so years start with a bang and end with a whimper.