Sunday, February 07, 2010

Mailbag, Sunday, February 7, 2010

Can't....keep....up....

But keep the comments rolling. There's plenty to talk about!

2,238 comments:

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koru said...

re: writers and their lives

some of the oldest writers ... the created concept of "Homer" or Sappho ... we just don't know anything about. Or at least, we know that some such as Homer are only constructs.

And with electronic writing, digital production online, well, it's a whole new realm that online culture has suddenly re-embraced some of the offered erasure of a clear narrator, has allowed multiple persons to take on one composite voice or entity as 'author' behind the curtain of the written word.

Maybe this notion of author is just a passing construct, something that worked for a couple thousand years, sometime after Homer and before the web, and is ready to be replaced with something else devoid of a singular personal history that we think we can scientifically dissect to 'prove' something about what the 'person' produced and its intent and influences?

just a thought. not a manifesto.

sh said...

@Seth

You're the greatest.

Jessa said...
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Sam N. said...

I think it's completely fine if a person doesn't like an artist due to the artist's personal life. Some artists we want to root for and lionize, and then there are other artists who we feel do not deserve our admiration. I think this is perfectly normal.

I guess the only difference is whether or not we confuse the worth of the art based on the life of the artist. Just because we don't like an artist's personal life doesn't mean their art is bad. Of course, even if we appreciate their work doesn't mean we should be their "fan" if we think they were an asshole.

For instance, I can appreciate the brilliance of Ezra Pound, but because of his anti-semitism, I don't have any desire to show him any love.

Jessa said...
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kaybay said...

If that's the case, Koru, then I give up as a reader. The author's experience is inextricably linked with his/her work, for me at least. Writing is deeply personal, which explains why many of the greats had some real issues, and if that personality is extracted from the writing, I can't see how it doesn't become bland or cliche. Oh wait, that's most of literature today. Oh snap!

koru said...

So kaybay, could you (or anyone here) not read one of my poems if you knew nothing about me?

It's an interesting concept ... you don't know if I'm male or female. You don't know where I'm writing from. You don't know what nationality I am. You don't know my interests, my love life, my education ...

Does that render my poems incomprehensible? I doubt it.

There's a parallel to be drawn here: the only bit of my 'life' the admissions folks know about me is summarised in GRE scores, a GPA, maybe a 2-page CV, and a personal statement. Which may or may not be true. And yet they read all our samples and decide who to admit based on such limited knowledge of the author. So either they can't really read us as literature, or some forms of such reading even with a partially or fully obscured author must be possible.

Victoria Schwab said...

You writers and your fancy concepts. I just read and hope to be touched somehow. I generally read first, and then if I've felt connected to the WRITING, I go in search of the author. I don't give a damn about the author until I've read them.

Jonc said...
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Sam N. said...

Re: Seth's new website

I like the Mountain Goats. Sax Rohmer #1 is one of my favorite songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUbFljMLIY8

kaybay said...

I could *understand* it, but it would leave me a little gipped. The writers with whom I have had felt the strongest "attachment" are those whose biographies I have read. For example, I read the first chapters of The Bell Jar without first reading Sylvia Plath's bio. Reading those first few chapters *made* me want to read her bio, which in turn totally made the book come alive. Like brushing off a layer of dust.

I would also venture to say that part of why you were accepted (twice, mind you :) )was because your writing interested the committee members in such a way that they wanted to know more about you and your life. Plus, you have to think of the fact that committee members typically require personal statements, so I guess they do want to know a little bit about you.

sh said...

@Sam

Yeah dude, the Mountain Goats!

koru said...

kaybay, i understand where you're coming from, i guess maybe i'm just standoffish enough (maybe in real life as well as in my reading, lol, who knows?) that i'm willing to say a writer intrigues me without feeling i need the full strip tease?

for me, the idea that i connect with a poem means many things, but two are things i think we both believe in (?): that the writer has in some way conveyed a deep emotional or other connection with the subject in his/her writing, and that i have also felt some connection (intellectual, emotional, physical, whatever). for you, that seems to either make you want to know more about the author in order to plomb that connection deeper, or it means knowing the biography.

maybe i've grown up intellectually and aesthetically on too much Flannery O'Connor. I'm more than willing to, at that point of feeling a connection, to allow it to be mystery. not everything needs to be something i solve. in fact, i think probably my best writing comes when i grapple with the spaces mystery leaves in life -- broadly defined.

i don't know. it's fun stuff to try to sort through with people :-)

oh, and i only have *one* acceptance at the moment. but in the immortal words of Scarlett O'Hara, "Tomorrow is anther day!" :D

kaybay said...

Ooh! Flannery O'Connor! She's an example of a great writer without a sordid past. By all accounts, she was a good Catholic girl (she did think up some crazy stuff though, so I don't know ;) ).

I guess for me, I just really want to know. I hate being in the dark. I want to know if the story is autobiographical or made up. I want to know if I can actually admire the author or pity him/her. Either way, it helps me to know "the truth," if you will. But I understand the intrigue of mystery and how that might also enhance a reading.

Kyle said...
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koru said...

ultimately, (imho), kaybay, the voyeuristic impulse i think is found in many/most/all of us writers ... the impulse that drives a person to want to know more about the author is also what drives them to know more about the character they are describing in their own novel, or even the characters in poems. it's why the wife of bath isn't merely a cardboard cutout but is someone who still intrigues scholars centuries after chaucer. imho.

Kyle said...

I agree with YARebels...

the conceptual stuff is all relative anyways

I'm sorry if I lit a cannon on this...

:)

everybody's right

nice to meet you all

Kyle said...
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kaybay said...

Agreed. Congrats on your acceptance! I think it is time for bed :)

Abbas Abidi said...

Man I just spent a good ten minutes writing out what I thought was a thoughtful comment on the whole MFA application process, and I guess I didn't publish it...? Because I can't find it anywhere. Man that's odd.

Abbas Abidi said...

Here's a redux.

I'm so excited about my Alabama acceptance that I don't know what to do with myself. I was anticipating rejection after rejection that I hadn't even thought of what I would do if I got into a program. When you see my list of schools, you'll understand why I was so hellbent on negativity.

Alabama
Cornell
Johns Hopkins
Iowa
NYU
Virginia
Washington U
Brown
Texas
Cal-Irvine
Vanderbilt
Oregon
Michigan

This blog has made me aware of how fortunate I am that my first notification from any university was an acceptance call. I really wish I discovered this blog during the application process, as it would have been nice to connect with other people who were going through the same things I was especially since no one around me understood the importance (to me) of what I was doing.

For a day or two afterward, I thought it was a practical joke on the part of my friends (they have been known to go to such extreme lengths), and part of me still doesn't believe it.

This blog seems full of good people, and I hope everyone keeps their heads up no matter what happens.

Nick McRae said...

@ All acceptees/waitlistees

Congratulations, folks!

@ Seth

Thanks so much for all the work you've done, friend.

Be well, all.

NM

Tim Noble said...

Agreed, thanks Seth. FWIW, I tried to word my question in the least whiny way possible.

Ali Haider said...

I am so glad that I found this blog. Can't believe that I have lasted the last few months without it. The waiting game is starting to take its toll on me; I haven't heard anything back from any of my programs yet. Hope everyone is enjoying success and getting into the programs of their dreams!

Seth Abramson said...

Hi Tim,

No worries. I was intentionally being a shit entirely out of proportion with any perceived necessity. Best,

Be well,
Seth

Eli said...

Yes, Mountain Goats love! Good work, Driftless House.

I was actually listening to 'This Year' yesterday - pertinent choice, I'd decided. And great, great song too...almost the best MG song. Almost.

There will indeed be feasting and dancing in Jerusalem next year. (If by feasting and dancing you mean another exhausting round of applications and Jerusalem you mean the suburbs of north London).

Eli said...

Also, holy crap on the MG tangent - John Darnielle & Tobias Wolff! I absolutely love Wolff here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZRv4enddGw&feature=player_embedded

Chrissy Widmayer said...

Congrats, lechatgris, for getting into Iowa in CNF! I can only hope that I'll hear back soon from them, either way, because they're my first choice.

Dying. The waiting is terrible.

Ali Haider said...

I have been trudging through all the comments. Can't sleep. Too nervous.

I've applied in fiction to:
Iowa
Michigan
Boston U
Florida
Oregon
Texas State
Houston

I had to get that list out there and off of my chest. Any word on these programs from anyone? Rejections or Acceptances?

I want to curl up in a ball.

Chrissy Widmayer said...

@sahaider

I'm in the same boat. Unable to sleep. Nervous, freaking out.

Someone heard from Iowa in CNF. What did you apply in?

I know Michigan is delayed. They got tons more applications than normal.

I'm not sure about of the others.

Let's both try to get some sleep. We gotta let it go for now. Nothing's going to happen in the middle of the night.

Ali Haider said...

All the programs I applied to were Creative Fiction.

On another note, I am not looking forward to waking up for work tomorrow morning. The Writing Center is not conducive to my much-needed morning relaxation.

frankish said...
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Trilbe said...

@MFAGuy & woon - Good luck on your Virginia Tech interviews! And congratulations on the honor of getting this far in their process.

@Eli - I totally understand your resigned pessimism. You've got a tough list and a lot of competition. But, girl, I want you to know that I'm putting all of my spiritual energy into hoping that you get into one of your programs because I selfishly want to prove you wrong to yourself. I really, really, really hope that one day in the near future I can go, Ha. Ha. Ha, beeeyotch! You was WRONG!

Nancy Rawlinson said...

New mailbag is up.

Dr. James McSaddle said...

I've been having a perpetual panic attack over my application to U. Michigan. I would excell in the program and I deserve a spot, but I know that doesn't mean anything. All than can be done has been done and I am quicly developing an ulcer. Right now I am substitute teaching at a rural school in Michigan, 40 minutes from where I live, and these kids are bastards. I want to punch several of them in the mouth and impregnate their mothers and then burn down their barns. I don't know if I can do another year of Food Stamps and Brats. I am going to be hitting the scotch and soda pretty hard when I get home.

Victoria Schwab said...

I had a dream I got into Michigan! And then I woke up :*(

Victoria Schwab said...

Heh, Woon, and likewise a book contract/editor/agent don't guarantee and MFA :p

:*(

Victoria Schwab said...
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