Dear Editor,
re: IN PRAISE OF THOUGHT COMPETITION
While I appreciate the efforts of Ms Segall-Wallace to intervene on the "no competition" culture specifically as it relates to creative writing, I was disappointed she didn't go further with her analysis of the problem. At least a generation of boys (the Harry Potter phenomenon notwithstanding) have been aliented from creative writing by a protectivist agenda that eschews action stories as part of a grand strategy to reduce bullying, potential gun violence, and generally the dangers of being male. My son went to an extracurricular creative writing class at a local flagship writers association and came back discouraged. He said it was all "Rivers and Trees"--the teacher wanting the otherwise all female class to produce stories with environmental, quirky relatives, or other "warm and fuzzy" themes. He quietly put away his story about a heroic warrior and went back to video games.
Regards,
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1 comment:
I just read your post, and I agree with you completely. I have witnessed resistance on many levels to kids' warrior-type pieces. I work with several young writers (both male and female) who LOVE writing action scenes in stories. (see: http://writopialab.blogspot.com/2007/11/when-one-boy-plays-video-games-he-finds.html) It is frustrating even hearing about a creative writing teacher shame or devalue the work of a young, inspired writer. Ugh. Have your son email his work to us! :-)
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