1.02.2003

Rawther cogent critique by someone named David Alpaugh in the current issue of Poets & Writers, titled "The Professionalization of Poetry". Reviews historical development of Creative Writing programs; comes down hard on the negative aspects of graduating 2000 poets annually in U.S. Compares pressures to get along & conform created by professionalization, to the individuality of approach, creative freedom, and worldly experience of exemplary Modernists (before MFA era). Questions the standards of academic departments that substitute creative work for more thorough & demanding education in languages & literary history.

"There are two kinds of literature: official and unofficial. The first is trash; the second, stolen air." - Osip Mandelstam

I know there's a gray area, but I'm gray enough as it is, being 240 years old.

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