[W.F. Lantry]

Was there an agenda?

"Why were creative writing programs started in the first place, and how did they become so popular?

"In his fashionably titled Workshops of Empire, Eric Bennett argues we can thank Cold War conservatives and liberal allies. According to Bennett, during the Second World War, a group of loosely associated writers and critics came to believe that teaching fiction and poetry to American (and, eventually, international) students could inoculate them against communist propaganda. Indebted to both New Humanism and New Criticism, writers such as Paul Engle and Wallace Stegner founded creative writing programs that taught students that literature was essentially “individualistic”—that is, it affirmed the reality (and perhaps primacy) of the human will and individual actions—and that it valued messy particulars over neat abstractions."

http://freebeacon.com/culture/did-co...-the-cold-war/

[Claudia Gary]

This is a slight digression, Bill, but: in Tom Clancy's 1994 novel Debt of Honour, a terrorist crashes a jetliner into the U.S. Capitol. (I didn't read it, but obviously many did.) As it happens, the Capitol itself -- a literal target in that novel -- was the only one whose attack was successfully intercepted on 9/11.

We'll never know, but I have wondered whether 9/11 could have had a slightly better outcome if there were a more widespread understanding of that other literary element, the metaphor.

[Kyle Norwood]

As Mattix's article points out, the big boom in creative writing programs came much later. I have always assumed that creative writing programs look attractive to colleges and universities because they are (relatively) low-cost, (relatively) high-return programs that are popular with students and sometimes bring a bit of prestige to otherwise obscure schools (such as Warren Wilson College). I don't know the actual economics of the programs, though. Perhaps someone else does.

[Michael Cantor]

How about painting and sculpting, Bill? Was there an agenda there as well. Music? Dance? The Commies don't limit their efforts to the written word. (I've never heard of the Washington Free Beacon before, but it sounds crappy enough to embarass Donald Trump. Check out the Store. A great place to buy cammies, pictures of George Bush on a T-shirt that says "Greatest Living President", gun cleaning kits, tactical (?) vests, and more of the same sick crap.) It would all be funny if it wasn't so frightening.

[Janice D. Soderling]

Michael is a shining example of a critical thinker. Always look at who is saying what and why. And where.

[W.F. Lantry]

The painting story is pretty well known. If one doesn't like the source below, just Google "CIA abstract expressionism," and one can find a wealth of sources. The same is true of various journals abroad... The Paris review is the famous example, but there were others in Europe and elsewhere.

Still, I've never seen real evidence about writing programs here. Other departments sure, but who would bother with writing programs? And the journalist is extremely suspect... He's just to the right of Genghis Khan, so salt is indicated in large quantities. Still, I can't quite figure out his agenda...

Thanks,

Bill


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...n-1578808.html

[Bill Carpenter]

http://www.theawl.com/2015/08/litera...the-cia-ranked

You might say there was a time when "they" were much closer to us, such as is also the case with big business.