Norman Mailer is 82 and Lawrence Ferlinghetti 86. Their sizable contributions to the nation's literature were duly noted with medals at the National Book Awards ceremony Nov. 16 in New York, Mailer for his lifetime achievements as an author and Ferlinghetti for his support of literature.

Both in traditional tuxedoes, they delivered the same message in their speeches:

Literature is dying. Novels will become "a footnote to our technological and advertising age," warned Mailer.

"Literature is an endangered species," intoned Ferlinghetti.

An old message from old guys. Is it true, and if so, what's to be done?

While the anecdotal evidence is impressive, the statistical data that serious books are passe is a bit sparse.

The National Endowment for the Arts last summer issued its "Reading at Risk" census survey that charted a nationwide decline in the reading of novels, short stories, poetry and plays between 1982 and 2002. It dropped about 10 percent overall, with the biggest fall -- 28 percent -- among the 18-to 24-year-old group.

It's the only major attempt I've seen to quantify what Mailer and Ferlinghetti are claiming.

Since it's the NEA's study, the agency should do something about it, was the response of chairman Dana Gioia, poet, opera critic and former advertising exec for Jell-O.

He launched a two-pronged assault. The first wave, The Big Read, was discussed in this column Nov. 13. It provides money and guidance next year to at least six cities for community-wide reading programs based on a well-known novel, much like Allegheny County's One Book, One Community project.

The second front, Poetry Out Loud, was unveiled Nov. 17 at the annual convention of the National Council of Teachers of English here. Its intention is to encourage high schoolers to discover "great poetry through memorization, performance and competition."

In short, a national poetry bee.

Both the NEA and the Poetry Foundation of Chicago have kicked in $500,000 each for the coast-to-coast poem-recitation competition next year, to culminate in a final "American Idol"-type showdown in Washington, D.C., on May 16.

The top winner gets a $20,000 college scholarship. The NEA has given an $8,000 grant to arts councils in each state and the District of Columbia to organize the poetry bees at high schools and is providing materials, including poetry anthologies, through a Web site, www.poetryoutloud.org.

Schools are to send their individual winners to a statewide poetry bee to pick a representative for the Washington showdown.

Gioia likens Poetry Out Loud to the ancient Olympics, in which great recitations were recognized along with athletic endeavors.

"It isn't just an arts program," he said. "By immersing themselves in powerful language and ideas, the students will develop their ability to speak well, especially in public."

The Poetry Foundation -- which sprouted recently from a multimillion-dollar grant from Ruth Lilly to Poetry magazine, formerly a modest Chicago-based journal -- is the NEA's enthusiastic partner.

It believes the program "builds on the resurgence of poetry as an oral art form, as seen in the slam poetry movement and the immense popularity of rap music among youth."

Wait just a second. The NEA's Gioia views Poetry Out Loud as a classical declamation form where a reader recites, "This is the forest primeval," but the Poetry Foundation is envisioning contemporary slam night with cheers and catcalls or a rap recording session with a DJ. Which is it?

The guidelines would indicate that the poetry selection must be made from the anthologies suggested on the Web site and be no longer than 60 lines. (So much for Longfellow or 50 Cent.)

A $1 million nationwide effort to encourage young people to perform classic poetry out loud can't be dismissed as a Band-Aid for a widespread problem.

Gioia and the Poetry Foundation are dedicated to preserving America's literary heritage, and we should stand behind them.

The messages of Mailer and Ferlinghetti and a few others, though, reveal a more serious condition -- a culture that is growing blinder to the intangible rewards of literature to the heart and soul.

Poetry isn't about becoming a better public speaker or winning a scholarship, and a novel is not just something to build community goodwill around.

They can help, but their real values are in the understanding, the compassion, the sympathy and the wisdom they can bring to a life.