It's not so much that the humanities have drifted into ridiculous subject matter as that the humanities have abandoned themselves. The occasional ridiculous subject matter is just a symptom. Part of what's left of the humanities has already migrated toward the social sciences. Many of the central categories of humanistic study now come from sociology. Some of the rest will migrate toward the other sciences, toward empirical studies of various sorts. The study of human animals will belong to biology and chemistry and psychology. The activist programs that have bedded down in the humanities can migrate toward ethnic and gender studies, disability studies, sexuality studies, and other social sciences--and they can thrive and do their work there. The residual humanities might continue for a long time as a feature of some kinds of institutions, but they will continue to lose legitimacy, if not appeal. They have produced the causes of their own decline.