I read a review last night of a new book about the romantic movement in music. Apparently, I haven't read the book yet, The Beloved Vision, the author writes of how the composers of the era were freelancers. I didn't know Litz was rejected by Paris Conservatory and that Elgar or Brahms never studied formally. The thesis is that if they were composers today they'd disappear into a university job and never be heard of again.
I don't think the question is about what we do or have done to care for our families. I started a business in educational publishing and committed my writing and editing to that for decades to give my children a better childhood than I had. I don't regret that. The big question is what has turning literary fiction and poetry into a profession created? Right now it's very clear other considerations instead of the quality of work are being used to admit people to the best programs. Maybe it's the right thing to do for other reasons but that is the point. It's for other reasons. And then there are the hundreds of struggling small private colleges that now have very expensive "low-residency" MFA programs they use to raise money. How is that not corruption? This is not to mention the obvious advantages a student from a privileged family will always have when it comes to being accepted into any school or having the opportunity to be better prepared.
The important question is what has turning the writing of poetry into a profession done to poetry? There are people here who insist that turning away from received meter and rhyme is the reason poetry has lost its appeal when the only type of poetry that has appeal now is spoken poetry which is seldom in meter or a regular rhyme scheme and is seldom if ever written by people with graduate degrees in writing. That is why, imo, giving Dylan the Nobel was a breath of air.
I wonder what getting an MFA would have done to Keats? What sort of poetry would he have written nestled into a steady salary? Hopkins?
These are legitimate questions to anyone who has ended their subscription to Poetry. (I don't know what it's like in other countries, btw.)
Maybe the bigger question is will there be a revolt against the Academy? I don't see it happening. If it happens it will probably be in a medium not dependent on publication in large university press journals. But there is so much noise could it even be noticed?
This is what the article is about.
One more thing--I've never applied to an MFA program so am not writing out of hurt feelings.
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