Exception taken to the phrase "more evolved" disregards:
(a) The nuances of meaning and history of usage of the word
evolve;
cf., to develop and work out, which has correlations in the idea of Darwinian evolution but also precedes it and suggests less specialized and literal applications.
A typical example:
"Toward a Visual Discourse" (from
In the Mind's Eye: The Visual Impulse in Diderot, Baudelaire and Ruskin)
(b) The context of scientific usage, which routinely employs the phrase "more evolved." The phrase can mean better adapted, but it can also mean greater complexity, sophistication, etc. That's one reason why scientists (and social critics) talk about life forms that are "more evolved" than the amoeba.
A few examples:
"It is time to stop thinking we are the pinnacle of evolutionary success - chimpanzees are the more highly evolved species, according to new research."
"Effect of Humic Fractions from Urban Wastes and Other More Evolved Organic Materials on Seed Germination"
All of which is splendidly irrelevant to my original point, which was this:
I don't believe literature to be subject to evolution in the Darwinian, populist or fashion-centric sense. If there is such a thing as "evolved" literature, then I believe it is of a kind that incorporates pre-Darwinian meanings of the term. When we talk about "evolving theories," we don't mean theories that are adapting to survive the ice age of the lit crit section of your local self-dismantling library. We mean that such theories are undergoing changes that bring them to states of greater applicability, clarity, fecundity, etc.
* * * * *
As for those who feel that disagreeing with someone else's ideas = laying down the gauntlet, what sort of a forum would this be if we were all expected to adhere to the same point of view? Sometimes the friction of disagreement can create energy that leads to new ideas.
I often find discussions most comfortable when there's a balance of agreement and disagreement, but sometimes that's not enough. Sometimes we have to pry our asses from our comfy chairs to glimpse unfamiliar truths.