Postscript to that thought.

Mistaking squalor for seriousness derives from the same source that makes people smugly announce their emancipation from the idea of being decent. A conception of decency that can be tested, threatened or redefined during the story, underlies the work of nearly all the authors I can think of. The people who repudiate such constructions of value are making the undergraduate mistake of confusing morality with ethics. Knowing how to live a good life (ethics) has very little to do with knowing how to be good (morality). 

There. I feel better now. Back to the chores!