Re: A response to Walt

[Wally <wally@sub-zero.mit.edu>]

> So much so in fact that -- Damon's essay on plot notwithstanding --
> our teachers and mentors tend to warn us away from analysis.  They
> discourage us from getting an english lit or creative writing degree,
> because when the analytical intellect gets too involved in the process
> at a macroscopic level, it makes things too mechanical and robs
> stories of their "heart."

As a fiction writer *and* a serious student of literature, I would like to
point out that learning new ways of reading texts does not dry up the
texts; letting our imagination be shut down by orthodoxy dries up our
READINGS. Not getting a degree in writing or literature because you want
to remain 'artistically pure' and 'more in touch with emotions' is built
on a fear that you can't balance two different aspects of the act of
reading/writing a text. Artistic purity is a stupid concept anyhow -- as
any fan of James Joyce, Quentin Tarantino, or The Roots can tell you.
Emotional purity is to be found in the most startling places.

All great writers are also good readers. Many good writers are held back
by silly, insular notions of remaining 'unsullied' by other influences;
this strikes me as being a defensive way of saying 'I have nothing to
say.'

Palms upward,
Wally