The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
Front-Ranger:
I don't recall any creative writing courses in my HS either but we had to write papers in our English classes and some were stories and poems, in addition to lots of essays. I took AP (advanced placement) English for two or three years and the papers were required to be typed and to have chapters or subheadings.
Nowadays, I think students do more one-page essays on related topics that are kept in a three-ring binder so at the end of the semester, they have a coherent record of a topic. At least that's the idea. My daughter wants me to work with the grandchildren on writing stories that they put up on Google Drive. Usually Chapter 1 is about 2 pages long, Chapter 2 is a couple of paragraphs and Chapters 3-5 are all shmushed together in a few lines. These stories start out well, but you know that by page 2 or 3 one of the following is going to happen: aliens from outer space appear; zombies appear; superheroes appear; or all three. The illustrations feature guns and knives. Now, my granddaughter has started writing stories. These are a little more diverse and usually contain a dragon, an island, a castle, a fairy princess, or all four.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on February 24, 2023, 01:36:22 pm ---I don't recall any creative writing courses in my HS either but we had to write papers in our English classes and some were stories and poems, in addition to lots of essays. I took AP (advanced placement) English for two or three years and the papers were required to be typed and to have chapters or subheadings.
--- End quote ---
Well, I think mine were English classes with writing requirements too. I don't think my kids had that kind of classes at all. The main things I remember were getting an A+ for a druggy poem about a Foghat concert :laugh: and having a teacher save one of my fictional stories to read to subsequent classes. Oh, and in junior high, "The poetry of Bob Dylan."
--- Quote ---Nowadays, I think students do more one-page essays on related topics that are kept in a three-ring binder so at the end of the semester, they have a coherent record of a topic. At least that's the idea.
--- End quote ---
Many people don't like writing labeled "essays" -- it's hard to sell essay collections, because they associate the term with dry papers that start with "In this paper, I will show that ..." and end with "So in summary, we have seen that ..." rather than, say, Norah Ephron or Joan Didion or David Foster Wallace.
serious crayons:
Jesse Eisenberg's S&M in the latest issue isn't knee-slappingly funny, by any means. But it's a pretty decent concept and he doesn't get too carried away with it.
I often wonder if people like Jesse Eisenberg and Mindy Kaling are automatic shoo-ins for publication if they submit a half-decent column? They have agents, after all, which makes a huge difference. I think there's very little the New Yorker will accept unagented.
Front-Ranger:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on February 25, 2023, 01:37:22 pm ---Jesse Eisenberg's S&M in the latest issue isn't knee-slappingly funny, by any means. But it's a pretty decent concept and he doesn't get too carried away with it.
--- End quote ---
Are you damning with faint praise? I didn't so much as twitch a smile muscle. There were a few clever sentences. That's as much as I can say.
However, there were a couple of really funny cartoons that came afterwards and redeemed the issue for me.
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on February 25, 2023, 02:00:46 pm ---Are you damning with faint praise? I didn't so much as twitch a smile muscle. There were a few clever sentences. That's as much as I can say.
--- End quote ---
Hmm ... feels more like encouraging a slow learner. "Come on, New Yorker, you can do this! You're on the right track here; the concept has some potential, now all you have to do is make it funny!"
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