by williamthallis » Wed Sep 16, 2015 11:50 pm
Facethecitizen,
Ever heard of deconstructionism? The literary theory founded by Jacques Derrida? I hadn't, and I ended up at a school where he was the humanities professor. We read the Odyssey my freshman year, and all we focused on was how Penelope was being oppressed and what 'the text' really meant when you ignored all other context but the text itself blah blah... I was studying English with the hope of teaching and writing, so I was going to focus on creative writing as well as the literature itself. I took one creative writing class, which was the most useless thing I have ever been a part of. Everyone went up and read their stuff out loud (aka, skipping the writing part, since the intent is to be read not heard) to an audience that was so polite and receptive because they knew when it was their turn, they wanted a polite and receptive reception. Very feel good, no technique, no real focus on writing. I was also taking ancient Greek and planning on switching to a classics major, but they canceled the class for 'budgetary reasons,' and that I needed to continue it the next year. I then applied to and was more or less accepted to the music department at the end of my first year, but was told I'd have to reapply again the next year because despite qualifying, due to budget restrictions, they couldn't take in any more students. I gave English one last shot and was going to console myself with Greek, which they canceled, again.
I got angry one day, walked off and put my energies into playing in a band. Even though I wrote the music, I was with some really good classical and jazz musicians, much better musicians than I was, and I learned way more from that than from any class I took. Part of that was repeatedly having my ass handed to me and being told 'no, that's wrong, do it this way' by people who knew what they were talking about. In the creative writing class I took, the teacher (whose writing was terrible, absolutely terrible), would go on and on about how writers aren't appreciated in our culture and writing is one of the bravest things you can do, and anyone who doesn't admire your noble efforts is uncultured, since you're a precious little superstar. I learned from drunk people in bars that it's a privilege to create something and have someone give you their time. I also learned that you have to practice, practice, practice, manage your time, learn how your own creativity works, learn to manage your time practice technical stuff, practice more, and that good intentions aren't good enough, but it's all in the execution. As Oscar Wilde said, 'All bad art is the result of good intentions.'
I'm not a fan of Joyce, but I do think that taking a class on one writer can prepare you for writing since, to paraphrase William S. Burroughs, you can't teach anyone how to write, but you can teach them how to read. Someone who really wants to write is going to do close reading on what they like, figure out why they like it, then lock themselves in a room and fail until they succeed at what they want to do. I think a lot of writers jump into creative writing without 'woodshedding' as it's called, practicing by reading and dissecting other writers, so they don't have the fundamentals down. I took a class, or should I say took then dropped a class, on Kafka, which I hoped would do that, but I realized when the teacher let a student take up 5 minutes of class time with how he felt the Metamorphosis was about Kafka's feelings about the Nazis (!!!!!) before politely saying, 'thank you, I value your input, that was well said, but unfortunately Kafka died before the Nazi party existed', that it wasn't going to work out. It was all so touchy feely.
I think reading makes you a better writer, but at least when I tried the English major route, we didn't even do that. Even reading someone you don't like, such as Joyce, makes you a better writer, since half of doing something well is knowing what not to do, and Joyce is a good source for that (he thought Odysseus had the etymological meaning of 'every man'...) Also, taking criticism is crucial, as well as focusing on technique. But I'm ranting now, sorry... An attractive Latina does make a class worth it. I'll agree on that.
And thanks DogLovingJim, I hope it does get sorted out. I try to behave myself in the Cracked comment section, so getting banned with trolls is a bit of a disappointment. I'm usually somewhat reclusive by nature, but even if my ban sticks at Cracked I think I may prefer it here for the time I do spend online. Everyone is far nicer and I do recognize some of the same names, and my chances of having an author harass me via PM for saying something other than 'you're wonderful' seems much more remote.
“Ever since you’ve joined this PC thing, you just bully people, and wait for people to say anything improper so you can just jump down their throats for whatever words he or she used.”
“‘He or she’ is an agender phobic microagression, Sharon. You are a bigot.”