Jun 10, 2009

Teachers of Creative Writing Get Introspective, Again

At American Book Review, a number of teacher/writers including Lance Olsen and Steve Tomasula consider the profession; in the New Yorker, Louis Menand meditates on the profession by way of reviewing Mark McGurl's The Program Era.

3 comments:

The Piper said...

I used to wonder about that kind of a person. You know them pretty good I would say. I used to think of them as sort of priests. But Priests of what? They were making themselves authorities of something they had no right to be authorities of. Yet they were gaining followings. Their classrooms were filled with the brain washed hanging on their every insincere word. Now I know that they are hypocrites and frauds. I know this. That's what matters and I will tell all who will listen. Though many are too deluded to reach. But now I understand what they are Priests of. Materialism.

The Piper said...

I say that they are priests of materialism and not of language arts or creative writing. They use language arts and creative writing to proselytize their materialistic values. They try and claim authority and ownership over something that should not be owned over something that is essentially free. They have succeeded in this for the most part. For years, perhaps decades, these corporate media giants like Bertelsmann have dictated to people what they should value most in life. You influence popular opinion through the mass media. These corporations want to control what people are reading so they do this by controlling what people are writing. Now if you were an independent writer and self published then you could write whatever you wanted. Now that’s writing for the sake of writing. There is not much profit in self publishing; it is all paid for by the writer himself. Most people who self publish do it because they are passionate about writing. Now these corporations like Bertelsmann make it nearly impossible for an independent voice to be heard. But Alex Irvine you are not an independent. You work for Bertelsmann probably the biggest multi media corporation in the world. You put out materialistic propaganda like Buy Out for them. I mean a writer who works for Bertelsmann is kind of like a person who shops at Wal-Mart, which is where I have bought a few of your books actually. I mean can you really say that you are a friend to independents? Or do you just preach that materialistic gospel, “hey look at me, I made it, keep at it and you will be able to write materialist propaganda for Bertelsmann too. You can take my creative writing course for 800 dollars.” How many books can an independent print for 800 dollars? And if you have so little faith in creative writing course then why even teach them? It all comes down to money. And that’s it. You gotta make that money man. Don’t you?

Unknown said...

This is the first I've heard that Wal-Mart is carrying my books. Or that I charge anyone to take a class. Or that Buyout (it's one word, by the way) was materialistic propaganda. What an informative comment.