[New-Poetry] M(opes) F(arting) A(round)

[AlMaginnes at aol.com]

I have no more dead horses to beat. Quick! Let's argue about teh valididty  
of the MFA.
 
It's real simple. If you don't think hte MFA is a valid degree, don't get  
one. If you don't think a certain kind of poem is worthwhile, don't read  it.
 
While I was gettiing my MFA, I got married and divorced, got arrested three  
times, flirted with serious financial disaster, worked in a car wash, poured  
concrete and worked construction. hardly hothouse stuff. I also wrote a lot of 
 poems, lerned something about how to teach and began to learn something 
about my  craft.
 
In a message dated 9/26/2006 9:42:47 PM Eastern Daylight Time, jfq at myuw.net  
writes:

X-INFO:  INVALID TO LINE
If you're really going to get all bunched up and flumoxxed  because I'm 
challenging the validity of your life choices, you should really  get the context 
right. The assertion has been made that "it's good for your  art to be able to 
be cloistered from real world concerns for a couple of years  to focus on 
craft." my statement about living in the world was a direct  response to that. To 
make it more clear, although I really don't see why it's  necessary as this is 
perfectly simple, I disagree that one can improve as an  artist of any kind 
by seeking out that kind of remove and I believe that craft  only improves 
dramatically and one only achieves true originality when are has  to fight for 
time in the ordinary milieu of life vs. what happens when seeking  out a special 
protected hot house environment to "develop and grow as a  writer" or some 
such nonsense. The difference is the robust and miraculous  
appearance of an orchid in the wild vs a carefully pampered and cultivated  
one in a greenhouse. Now, seriously, you can't have it both ways, either the  
MFA is a special environment or it isn't. I agree that it is, what's at issue  
is whether that is beneficial. I say it isn't. Now, if you want to respond to  
that, I'd be interested in hearing what you have to say, but try not to be so 
 insulted. I don't care what you do for a living or where you went to school. 
 Whether or not you've wasted your time is no skin off my nose at all. All I  
know is, I can pick up a copy of a certain kind of magazine called a literary 
 journal, read a certain kind of poem, feel a certain kind of boredom, and 
can  turn to the contributor bio and have a "thought so" moment when i see "poet 
so  and so has an MFA from Iowa."


On Tue, 26 Sep 2006, Suzanne Burns  wrote:

> Among other things. I view it as a poet's duty to live  in the world
> that non-poets live in and MFAs are the opposite of doing  that.
>
> Part of the problem with your argument is that you  are setting up as a
> false class division which does not  exists.
>
> Come on.
>
> What makes you so certain  that people who have academic degrees don't
> "live in the world" that  non-poets live in?  I don't know nwhat
> rarified academy you  attended, but they really aren't like that. How
> are is studying in an  MFA program the opposite of living in the world?
>
> School is no  more or less "the real world" than anything else, and
> almost every  writer I have ever known, in or out of the academy, has
> had to  work.  Teaching, editing, technical writing, yes, this is the
> fun  stuff... but also doing laundry, scrubbing floors, waiting tables,
>  having children, fixing cars, paying taxes, de-worming cats, shaving
>  pigs, paying debts, painting houses, selling cosmetics, dancing for
>  bachelor parties, selling thermopane windows over the phone-- you name
>  it.  Geez, the strangest job I ever had (this was after I got my  MFA)
> was dubbing Japanese anime porn flicks into English-- don't know  that
> I would call that a "real world" job exactly, but damn, it  was
> interesting, it was a real product that sold for real money, and  gave
> me plenty of fodder for writing.
>
> Honestly, I  don't know anyone who is exempt from living in the real
> world.   If you really think enrolling into an MFA program is going to
> mean  occupying some sort of rosey cradle, I think you are in for a
> rude  awakening.
>
> Suzanne
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> New-Poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu
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>


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