>
>John, Have you ever been enrolled in an MFA program? I doubt your your
>claims about the process of obtaining an MFA. I'm sorry, but it sounds to
>me like you really don't know what you are talking about. Sure there are
>lots of great writers who didn't use an MFA program and there are lots who
>did. Like most degrees, MFA's are meaningless, but what one learns in the
>process may be important. I agree with Jim's point about learning about
>writing time may be one of the most valuable learning outcomes of an MFA
>program.
I stand by my original post: the programs are a waste of time. If a person
needs "writing time", to "polish" or hone his/her "craft" then it would be
in their best interests to keep the greatest distance possible from other
writers, especially young ones. Most flimsy liberal arts degrees are
meaningless, especially when they are expounded by Lacanian know-it-all
critics in English departments. Will, I'm not calling you a sciolist or
condemning what you do, but creativity; the expressiveness and imaginative
thrust of great literature, can never be taught. Ergo, your class, and any
like it (Writing for Publication), can at best hope to screen out those
writers who thought they were registered for journalism.
In my own
>case, the MFA experience increased my opportunities to know other poets.
>Richard Hugo was my thesis director and became my second father. I wouldn't
>have met him otherwise (He ran the MFA program at the U of Montana in the
>70's and 80's.) I can't explain how knowing Hugo and his poetry and his
>talent with teaching writing has made my own life better in a short post,
>b ut I can at least testify to the fact that our friendship was begun as a
>result of the MFA program and it is one of the few great things in my life.
>Again,
That friendship could have been started during an uncomfortable subway ride
and is not a testament to the MFA program anywhere in the USA.
>
>I will also take exception with John about his criticism of using SAI
>instead of Trstam Shandy to show writers about story writing within a
>story. Again, I wonder about the experience John has with the process of
>teaching creative writing.
I have never taught creative writing, but was a teacher. Perhaps your
methods are effective in reaching students in the class. Still, SAI, as I
wrote before, has all the charms of a chancroid. That being said, I have
reread it and still do not know how that "dear Tyger" letter can be used to
display anything about creative writing, other than how to lose the reader
in an embarassingly florid, self-indulgent mess.
As a story within a story, TRISTRAM SHANDY is an "antinovel" and has all of
the aspects you will need to teach them. It has the author disrupted by
illness, clever interior monologues, and of course the
stream-of-consciousness style Salinger botched in SAI. Sure, it is a bit
long, in comparison to SAI, but we all know Salinger is a self-described
"dash" man as a writer. So do you really want to use him as a model?
Personally, I don't use
>whole novels because they consume more learning and reading space in a
>writing workshop as literature and I prefer to use short published pieces
>and focus most on student writing. Maybe Tristam Shandy is a great read for
>students today, but I haven't noticed it on any syllabi for creative
>classes
Oh, how I weep for the future.
>Bring it on, will
Leave it off, john
>--
> Will Hochman
>
>Associate Professor of English
>Southern Connecticut State University
>501 Crescent St, New Haven, CT 06515
>203 392 5024
>
>http://www.southernct.edu/~hochman/willz.html
>
John Gedsudski
Adjunct Professor of Nicotine
Philistia State College
507 Boorish Drive, NY,NY
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Received on Mon Sep 2 13:59:07 2002
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