Coetzee on creative writing programs
Some interesting comments from J.M. Coetzee in the Australian about today’s creative writing programs (via Maud):
“Should we be worried that the graduating students are equipped to write novels and stories and plays for today’s literary market but not well informed about the history of these forms or about what has been achieved in the forms in the past?” Coetzee asked.
“If I asked the corresponding question in the realms of science and technology, a reasonable answer would probably be, no, it is nothing to be worried about, that someone could get a degree in astronomy without knowing about Ptolemy or a degree in engineering without knowing about Archimedes.”
Thinking about this in an American context, I was reminded of something Charles Newman wrote in 1966:
There are very few promising and/or young American writers today who have not been more influenced by ‘foreign’ writing than by any of their immediate predecessors. And the genuine merit of ‘national discoveries’, such as those of the new French novelists, have only become ascertainable as writers of other cultures have adapted them to their own experience, without being committed to a programmatic defense of la methode.
Writing on the “death of the British novel” in Granta in 1980, Bill Buford speculated that the vitality of American fiction “is largely the consequence of participating in an international dialogue” as Newman describes.
I feel tempted to say, yes, young American writers today are not engaged in a larger dialogue, either international or historical – they are simply in dialogue with one another. But is it really true?
April 11th, 2006 15:00
Of course there are exceptions, but as a general rule I agree with you. These programs do little for literature, but a lot for writing. Why pay big money to learn about and appreciate Henry James when he won’t pay the bills? For the kind of money and, especially, time you invest in these programs you should emulate Zadie Smith instead of Hawthorne.
April 12th, 2006 06:47
I’m surprised that people have taken Coetzee’s essay as an opportunity to rehearse the old rants on MFA programs. Personally, what the hell kind of writer are you if you haven’t read James by the time you’re in an MFA program? For god’s sake. But I guess Coetzee, as a teacher, is simply being a realist. Whereas I, as a knucklehead blogger, can afford to cling to my illusions.
By the way, I’ve always loved your response to Hans Hoffman when he told you you should paint from nature: “I am nature.”
April 14th, 2006 11:14
“…not well informed about the history of these forms or about what has been achieved in the forms in the past.”
If a writer reads as prolifically as he/she should, they are going to be ‘plenty’ well informed.
But to be honest, I don’t see why this matters. A great writer is a great writer. I believe this. Being ignorant of James isn’t going to zap their talent.
It’s just a pity. That’s all.
April 14th, 2006 18:26
I’m a little leery of the “great = great” argument. If it’s an a priori/tautological aura of “greatness” — if we allow our writers to believe they can be ignorant of James because it won’t zap their talent — then we’re producing in our schools and MFA programs (like it or not, where language has increasingly come to live) worse than uninformed writers — we’re producing uninformed readers.
From this it seems a quick slide to a literary landscape shaped and defined by the likes of Jonathan Franzen. If we take the burden of the past off the readers; if we license them (by licensing ourselves) to have not read/engaged James (or whomever), then we’re producing exactly the readers that Franzen thinks he needs to entice from the paintball arena.
March 8th, 2007 23:02
[...] I think that’s what Coetzee was talking about not long ago when he mentioned that young writers today don’t read. Or rather, they read more of each other than they do of Conrad or Woolf or Melville or Bronte or Defoe or Cervantes. Coetzee was saying, I think: you can’t be a serious writer if you don’t know the jokes. [...]
July 3rd, 2008 11:22
New book on J.M. Coetzee…