The early effort to engage & absorb literature (labyrinthine fold of moth-wing) - happens in solitude & company, in school, out-of-school...

"formal" training, jobs, etc.... the bureaucratization of life....... these don't have much to do with "it"...

the banality & mediocrity you encounter among the supposed literati.... seems like mostly the result of being too easily satisfied... cardboard for breakfast...