Why Write (PART II)

Why Write?

They say "writers write." This is cute, but not enough. Especially today, inundated as we are in so-called "information." The biggest "issues" I see are:

1. "Fine" literature has become the domain of the Academy. The Academy (Universities, MFA programs, non-profit Literary organizations) have a viewpoint. Despite the oft-repeated "we want to hear from unrepresented voices (ie. diversity)" the Academy has a political-social agenda. They KNOW who the bad guys are and they've rounded up the usual suspects (old white men, Republicans, capitalists, industrialists, military, Christians if fervent, etc.) They might entertain the notion that they open-minded but the most honest will admit that we live in too "scary" (a popular word) a time to allow any diversity of opinion AS IT RELATES to the causes of the problems confronting us (essentially the same list). "Diverse" means a voice from South Africa that "supports" a favorite agenda item (women's rights, global warming, the voraciousness of capitalism, etc.).

2. The Academy is the validator of the writers of our time. Even the "outsider" writer (see the Wall Street Journal article on Donald Ray Pollack's "Knockemstiff" 2/9/08) is allowed in provided he is knighted by the academy. That is he kowtows TO the academy by (of all things) quitting his "real" dayjob (the one that authenticates him) and going into an MFA program. I'm not saying they wouldn't like him if he didn't, but the means by which he was discovered had all to do with the MFA program at Ohio State University. Outsiders are consumed and in a sense digested in this manner. Perhaps Mr. Pollack can keep his outsider voice if he makes sure any outsider viewpoints that might creep into his work are clearly the words of "characters" like the technique Philip Roth used in "The Human Stain".)

3. MORE LATER


FROM EARLIER WHY WRITE I:





I would stop writing if... my inner monologue would quiet down.

I would stop writing if... I thought there were a lot of good writers out there.

I would stop writing if... I thought the next generation of writers had managed to wriggle out from under the (inevitably) politically correct pedagogy of MFA programs.

I would stop writing if... I thought Hollywood "got it"--that is, that young 'hip' writers, working in highly paid vaguely cooperative batches can produce solid fiction.

I would stop writing if... I didn't think "the media" was invading that part of the brain that needs a bit of quietude in order to make (better) decisions

I would stop writing if... I didn't have anything to say

I would stop writing if... I had so many "good books" piled up to read instead of digging for things that have been bypassed by the "National Public Radio" consciousness**

I would stop writing if...