  The current status of NF studies is odd. In the 1970s Boffa and Coret proved some interesting results about stratified formulæ in theories of wellfounded sets, and work continues. However there is little traffic in the other direction and it seems unlikely that NF will attract the attention of a critical mass of scholars until someone succeeds in proving it consistent relative to ZF or one of its kin, (and even this is uncertain, for NFU is known to be consistent and still finds few friends) and this consistency question seems to be very hard. There are older unresolved issues in Set Theory – CH for one – but the status of NF does seem to be the oldest outstanding consistency question. The fact that NF refutes the axiom of choice sharpens the consistency problem greatly, and ought to sharpen public interest, but the widely-held view that sets are, of their essence, wellfounded represents a huge rhetorical obstacle to NF attracting the attention that its foundational interest merits. That idea is now (post Aczel [1988]) less suffocating than it was, but is still casts a shadow. The shadow it casts falls over NFU as well, which is unfortunate, since NFU is known to be consistent, and has a wealth of interesting model theory. It also distracts us from the most basic feature of NF: as a theory of a universal set, it does at least represent an earnest endeavour to take the paradoxical classes seriously, and not just erase them. “Cowards, you notice” says Higgins in Pygmalion “are always shrieking to have troublesome people killed”.