the problem is everyone is a griswold and no one wants to be an edgar a. poe ): and now everything is compilation of poems and critiques that people paid to have be there. its like giswold murdered poe in more ways than one...
Interesting. I think Kimmel and Colbert are both entitled, smarmy (really fits) snobs, well paid and pampered due to their obvious liberal bias. And, bottom line is the ‘bottom line.’ Millions of people like me tired of tuning in and seeing nothing but dub jokes about President Trump. If there had been some balance—there was tons of humor about the Biden/Autopen presidency, the prat falls, the spooky, red-lit Hitler-like speech in Philly—that they could have incorporated but did not. Both these guys are reflexive liberals who couldn’t get free of their hatred for Trump and the people, like me, who voted for them.
I, as a non-MFA writer, liked what you have to say about that degree and that institution and the effect it’s had on reviewing. I believe it’s had a huge effect, especially in publishing. Why? Because, let’s face it, when most colleges in the US are staffed by 95% democrat profs, I can safely say that these MFA programs are as well, maybe at 99% democrat, or, liberal, if you will. This bias ensures that it is likely that anyone with conservative views will have to hide them and take anti-nausea meds to get through two years of MFA programming. Unlikely that they would stick it out. So the ones coming out of the MFA programming mill, have a rolodex of democrat/liberal MFA profs and fellow students to tap when they finish their Short Story Collections, or their novels. Their work will likely, more than likely, be judged by like-minded liberal deciders. Also, their work will be reviewed by the same.
Contrast that with writers who do not go the MFA route. Foolishly, they believe that their mastery of storytelling, demonstrable writing skills, and their life experiences will enable them to write good story. Whether they do (write well) or not, will have no relevancy. They will simply not get in the door of Big Publishing, for obvious reasons. They will be forced to ‘self-publish’ on Amazon KDP or other venues—like I must do—and hope for the best, which rarely comes. Like Sisyphus, they labor for years, one book, maybe two, and eventually give up.
What does that leave the culture? Cookie stamp novels with consistently liberal world views, promoting the new ‘morals’ and values, and attacking the usual subjects—working class people, chaste women, anyone who does not vote democrat.
Anyway, I’m resigned to this dynamic, having seen its rise and takeover the last 25 years. Someday the liberal left’s hold on culture (especially writing) will collapse, just as the Soviet Union did, after its dehumanizing run of 70 years.
I generally think that the best writing education is to live a varied and full life and read widely and thoughtfully. A 23-year-old coming out of five or so years of coddled university education has, with rare exception, precious little to say to me about anything. A lot of them have never even had a real job.
I ofc have pretty different political views from yourself but I don't disagree that a flattening of ideological position within the professorial caste teaching writers "to write" is likely bad for the students -- it's just the pigeon hole isn't limited to politics for them, it runs the whole damn gamut between basically every kind of experience. A creative writing prof, by their nature, is going to have had a career path that looks like a lot of other creative writing profs, and so in a lot of cases they will turn out to have just generally a lot of the same experiences. This isn't necessarily the truth entirely across the board, but it is for enough of it for it to be, to my mind, rather limiting.
the problem is everyone is a griswold and no one wants to be an edgar a. poe ): and now everything is compilation of poems and critiques that people paid to have be there. its like giswold murdered poe in more ways than one...
Excellent, thank you
Interesting. I think Kimmel and Colbert are both entitled, smarmy (really fits) snobs, well paid and pampered due to their obvious liberal bias. And, bottom line is the ‘bottom line.’ Millions of people like me tired of tuning in and seeing nothing but dub jokes about President Trump. If there had been some balance—there was tons of humor about the Biden/Autopen presidency, the prat falls, the spooky, red-lit Hitler-like speech in Philly—that they could have incorporated but did not. Both these guys are reflexive liberals who couldn’t get free of their hatred for Trump and the people, like me, who voted for them.
I, as a non-MFA writer, liked what you have to say about that degree and that institution and the effect it’s had on reviewing. I believe it’s had a huge effect, especially in publishing. Why? Because, let’s face it, when most colleges in the US are staffed by 95% democrat profs, I can safely say that these MFA programs are as well, maybe at 99% democrat, or, liberal, if you will. This bias ensures that it is likely that anyone with conservative views will have to hide them and take anti-nausea meds to get through two years of MFA programming. Unlikely that they would stick it out. So the ones coming out of the MFA programming mill, have a rolodex of democrat/liberal MFA profs and fellow students to tap when they finish their Short Story Collections, or their novels. Their work will likely, more than likely, be judged by like-minded liberal deciders. Also, their work will be reviewed by the same.
Contrast that with writers who do not go the MFA route. Foolishly, they believe that their mastery of storytelling, demonstrable writing skills, and their life experiences will enable them to write good story. Whether they do (write well) or not, will have no relevancy. They will simply not get in the door of Big Publishing, for obvious reasons. They will be forced to ‘self-publish’ on Amazon KDP or other venues—like I must do—and hope for the best, which rarely comes. Like Sisyphus, they labor for years, one book, maybe two, and eventually give up.
What does that leave the culture? Cookie stamp novels with consistently liberal world views, promoting the new ‘morals’ and values, and attacking the usual subjects—working class people, chaste women, anyone who does not vote democrat.
Anyway, I’m resigned to this dynamic, having seen its rise and takeover the last 25 years. Someday the liberal left’s hold on culture (especially writing) will collapse, just as the Soviet Union did, after its dehumanizing run of 70 years.
Thanks for your article!
I generally think that the best writing education is to live a varied and full life and read widely and thoughtfully. A 23-year-old coming out of five or so years of coddled university education has, with rare exception, precious little to say to me about anything. A lot of them have never even had a real job.
I ofc have pretty different political views from yourself but I don't disagree that a flattening of ideological position within the professorial caste teaching writers "to write" is likely bad for the students -- it's just the pigeon hole isn't limited to politics for them, it runs the whole damn gamut between basically every kind of experience. A creative writing prof, by their nature, is going to have had a career path that looks like a lot of other creative writing profs, and so in a lot of cases they will turn out to have just generally a lot of the same experiences. This isn't necessarily the truth entirely across the board, but it is for enough of it for it to be, to my mind, rather limiting.