Moxley: CW in America

Just picked a few articles that looked the most useful.

Valerie Miner "The Book in the World"

Really interesting stuff here. She describes what sounds like a vital class, one that should be required rather than labeled "experimental." Students take internships and examine the social realities of publishing and sales of books. "Social issues in publishing" is the name of the course.

Her list of theoretical issues reads like a recipe for a chapter of my thesis:

The theoretical issues include: literacy in the United States; regional identity in publishing; the economics of conglomerate houses and independent firms; the role of the critic in society, the treatment of under-represented cultures in publishing, First Amendment rights and responsibilities. (228)

Or close, anyway. She found the connection between literacy and CW, and its "social issues" related to publishing creative work. Smart.

Here's her defense of the course against those who feel that students should be shielded from the social and economic realities of publishing:

I'm not teaching people to compromise their art to suit the bestseller list or the elite list of celebrated literary houses. Quite the opposite, I'm saying that writers need to know about the world around them to understand how to protect the integrity of their work. // As artists, it's crucial to understand how we function as social agents...it is essential to understand what does and doesn't get published and why...By studying the *context* of the making of literature we can preserve good writers from early discouragement...the more we understand how our work is treated in the world, the more likely we are to survive and succeed as writers. (233-234)

And here's her take on one important aspect of the racial inequity involved in publishing:

[An] American legend worth examining is the notion that "any good book eventually gets published." If we live in a country where—as popular myth would have it—anyone can grow up to be president, certainly anyone can be a writer. The truth is that in either case you may succeed more readily on the basis of race, gender, social or geographic status. (234)

I agree on both points, President Obama's incumbency notwithstanding.

A few LEADS, and other books I found while on Amazon:

editors on editing

book publishing industry 2nd ed

Books: the culture and commerce of publishing


Eve Shelnutt "Notes from a Cell: Creative Writing Programs in Isolation"

Shelnutt's article offers a powerful critique of CW programs and the state of literature in America. I'll let her do most of the talking:

The unsettling fact is that in America the majority of new "serious" imaginative writing is being produced by writers trained in M.F.A. programs staffed by teachers who themselves are products of M.F.A. programs.
The intellectual climate in these programs ceases to be of provincial concern when publishers, the reading public, and alumni of M.F.A. programs are congruent...Moreover, when so many aspiring writers and publishing teachers are gathered under the umbrella organization of the Associated Writing Programs (AWP), which concerns itself, among other things, with developing connections with publishers, it becomes difficult to discern how much the publishing industry is influenced by writing spawned in M.F.A. programs (4)

I remember at Alice James books that decisions on the poetry contest (the only way they published) were made by the board, and that the board was made up primarily of graduates of Iowa City. While I was there, we published three or four poets, all of them fellow alumni. I don't think this was intentional, or the workings of a good-old-boy network. Rather, Iowa City produces a particular aesthetic, valued and promulgated by its graduates. When the board read from the submissions, they naturally gravitated toward their own. That said, these were not blind readings, so a the more cynical explanation could still be true. Either way, this to some extent verifies Shelnutt's complaint.

Shelnutt connects the proliferation of literary journals with the rise of MFA programs and the new availability of federal and state money for the arts. Graduates and teachers needed places to publish, and CW departments needed a public face that would legitimize their "contribution" to letters, so the journals filled these needs. Because they are motivated by these needs rather than a desire to find and encourage the best available writing, these journals are not, according to Shelnutt, providing much of a service to contemporary literature. And small university presses, since they base their decisions to some degree on an author's track record with the lit journals, these presses are not exactly a beacon of hope, either. Intellectual fiction, and the writer as a public intellectual, are not supported by this state of affairs.

the relevant questions seem to me to be, *what* are we teaching students who come to us wanting to learn how to write fiction, poetry, and nonfiction? And how does what we teach or fail to teach affect contemporary literature? (8)

The assumption is that the AWP, or the collective CW programs, exercise a great deal of influence over the direction of American lit. If it's all McPoetry or whatever, then that's bad news.

I have come to believe that M.F.A. students are largely separated from the broader intellectual life of the university, and...I see this separation as augmenting publishers' economic moves away from quality literature (9)

Interesting how she ties the MFA to publishing and economic factors...

Then there's this:

There are no theorists of the teaching of creative writing equal to the theorists in literature and composition. (15)

If that isn't a call to arms, I don't know what is.

Important to address are "considerations of a writer's attitude to language and form as carriers *in themselves* of political and social assumptions as well as methods by which subtle social and political affects are or can be expressed in imaginative writing. (20)

In defense of theory:

Knowing of and thinking about contemporary theories of criticism does not mean an M.F.A. student must embrace the theories...The M.F.A. student may want to consider new ways of thinking about literature when encountering new literary works. (21)

LEADS

Looks like we gots to get Gass's article. Solid critique of the MFA.


Moxley's article "Tearing Down the Walls: Engaging the Imagination"

Moxley surveys comp theory, like Bishop, and is most helpful for his leads

He suggests Erika Lindermann *A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers* OUP 1987 for a survey of prewriting strategies.

This guy did a really interesting experiment on productivity under constraint:
Boice, Robert. "The Neglected Third Factor in Writing: Productivity." *College Composition and Communication* 36: 472-80.

these two sources suggest that teachers comment on student writing based on a student's intentions and purpose:
Knoblauch, C. H., and Lil Brannon. "Teacher Commentary on Student Writing: The State of the Art." *Freshman English News* 10: 1-4.
Sommers, Nancy. "Responding to Student Writing." CCC 33:1-3, 7.

He make this weird claim:

Many creative writers reject all the have read when they sit down to write. Instead of mimicking work they admire, creative writers turn their focus inward toward the depths of inner speech...Many creative writers look inside, assessing what they've internalized, as opposed to mimicking what they admire (37)

Then he quotes Salinger...or one of Salinger's narrators to this effect:

Ask yourself, as a reader, what piece of writing in all the world Buddy Glass would most want to read if he had his heart's choice. The next step is terrible, but so simple I can hardly believe it as I write it. You just sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself (38)

This may reflect what many writers report of their process, and so, for those writers, it may be appropriate to leave well enough alone. However, Moxley proposes that writers are actually doing what they thing they are doing, which is rather impossible. No one can "reject all they have read" nor is there any "inner speech" somehow essentially separate from public speech. The writer can't really originate text out of thin air; writer's draw on what they know, what they have read. They may do something new, but only new in relation to and in conversation with what has come before. Moxley needed more emphasis on the "internalized" and less emphasis on the "reject".

As for Buddy Glass, he is not claiming that audience does not matter, but merely that he, himself is also a reader and is therefore his own best chance of understanding what readers think like, what they like, what they want from a work of fiction. "You were a *reader*" he says "long before you were a writer."

Moxley goes on:

Contrary to the rhetorical paradigm, writers like Aldous Huxley don't bother with the thoughts of external audiences when they're writing: "I've never made a point of writing for any particular person or audience; I've simply tried to do the best job I could and let it go at that." (38)

But what is a "good job" for Huxley? How does he know when he's done one? Surely he can't think his standards for good writing are wholly original, private, originating in himself. A "good job" of writing is always a good job of saying something in a way that achieves a desired effect for a particular audience, even when that audience is not consciously addressed and the writer never bothers to investigate his/her concept of "reader."

Janet Emig comes up again:
"Writing as a mode of learning" CCC 1977 28: 122-28

Weis brings brain research from the 80s into her work:
Weis, Monica R. "Current Brain Research and the Composing Process" In *The Writer's Mind: Writing as a Mode of Thinking,* edited by Janice Hays, Phylis Roth, Jon Ramsey, Robert Foulke, 25-34. Urbana: NCTE, 1983.

*The Courage to Create* by Rollo May looks really good, and that in conjunction with *The Mirror and the Lamp* would make for the beginnings of a decent paper on creativity.

Selzer Jack, "Exploring options in Composing." CCC 35 1984: 276-84

Why do I feel like I'm stuck in the 80s???

Murray, Donald. "Teach Writing as a Process not a Product." In *Learning by TEaching* Upper Montclair, N.J.: Boynton/Cook Publishers, Inc., 1982, 14-39.

Because I AM stuck in the 80s. Cue the Wham!


Finally, a quote from Moxley's intro, which summarizes the content of the collection:

Taken as a whole, these authors and editors make the following recommendations: (1) student writers must be readers—a background in literature and criticism enables student writers to identify and produce creative work, (2) academic training in writing must be rigorous and diverse; (3) student writers must have an understanding of the composing process and a knowledge of a variety of composing strategies; and (4) student writers must master the fundamentals of craft. (xvi)

LAST LEAD:
To catch me up on process pedagogy, Lad Tobin's article in this book might help. In fact, the whole book should offer a nice overview of comp pedagogy and what it might have to teach CW. Maybe it ends in the 80s, maybe there's more to read. either way, Tobin will fill me in.