Nice piece! Lots of insights I agree with here. I've always viewed the brutal grad school culture (especially online) as a primarily function of the "elite overproduction" (Peter Turchin's thesis). The fight for scarce prestige/elite status devolves into factionalism, aggression, and deception (material concerns are important but as a secondary factor that exacerbate status anxieties when relative comparisons are unfavorable).
What I’ve rarely (ever?) seen addressed in these debates is that the MFA itself most often has a negligible impact on the writer and their art. It’s two, sometimes three years, and unless one is lucky enough to have a real aesthetic connection with a professor or peer, it’s a pretty forgettable experience, and most of what writers “learn” about their craft and their evolving standards and taste is going to occur outside the confines of a program. For that reason I always thought the debate was a little silly.
The biggest problem today may be the low stakes (combined with high debt), given what's happened and happening to literary culture overall: https://jakeseliger.com/2021/09/30/the-death-of-literary-culture/
Nice piece! Lots of insights I agree with here. I've always viewed the brutal grad school culture (especially online) as a primarily function of the "elite overproduction" (Peter Turchin's thesis). The fight for scarce prestige/elite status devolves into factionalism, aggression, and deception (material concerns are important but as a secondary factor that exacerbate status anxieties when relative comparisons are unfavorable).
What I’ve rarely (ever?) seen addressed in these debates is that the MFA itself most often has a negligible impact on the writer and their art. It’s two, sometimes three years, and unless one is lucky enough to have a real aesthetic connection with a professor or peer, it’s a pretty forgettable experience, and most of what writers “learn” about their craft and their evolving standards and taste is going to occur outside the confines of a program. For that reason I always thought the debate was a little silly.
much ado about nothingthat wuld offput 98percent of the worlds 'writers