So now I'm starting to wonder if I have to go on a long trip and try to read Moby Dick again.
I don't know that I'd blame pulp for a diminished interest in classics, it seems to me that any interest in reading is a good thing. Despite what school can do to some books I think that it has a place for introducing people to things they'd not otherwise try - and, of course, the right teachers can make all the difference. If you want to blame anything you might look at ebooks. Not so long ago, when you went into a bookshop, you essentially got a choice between what was current and what was classic. With ebooks the cost of "reprinting" drops so much that more books remain "current" and so compete with the classics. Other factors include: time - the older a work the more difficult it tends to be to newer readers; volume - even without ebooks there is simply a larger volume of work competing with (older) classics.