I'm going to move the writing thread over here ... so it can be archived later.

-- Anonymous, July 14, 1999

Answers

Oh no. I can just feel the money creeping out of my pockets. I've never read nor heard of Saroyan before now, but the two of you have peaked my interest.

I desperately hope that it is possible to teach and write well. I've been writing since I was six (except for the last 3 years) and I've recently gone back to school to get my teaching certificate. If I had to choose, I'd choose writing, but I'd rather not choose at all.

I was an undergrad at the UW-Madison -- home to semi-famous author Lorrie Moore. I never took a class from her because word in halls was that she was a TERRIBLE teacher. If you've read any of her stories it won't come as a surprise, I suppose. They just drip with distain for academia and snotty nosed undergrads. I think it is too bad that so many writers have to take jobs in academia to make ends meet. Lorrie Moore would probably do the world much more good if she could focus on writing. Meanwhile there are many mediocre writers who would make sensitive, challenging teachers. The best writing teacher I found was a shy graduate student with nary a publication to his name and an admitted case of writer's block. He'd give me back my stories completely covered with useful criticisms, along with just enough postive comments to keep me going.

I suppose you're right, Beth. The two are simply separate talents. Some people have one or the other. Some have neither, and a few have both.

Okay, I'll stop. Sorry.

-- Anonymous, July 14, 1999

There are any number of people who excell at both. Like David Kirby, Harry Crews, Gerald Locklin. Aram Saroyan. James Dickey I've heard was a great teacher. Edward Albee, though he mostly just lectures. Same with Vonnegut.

So they exist, people who can do both. But they are rare. But it's rare to find a great writer or teacher in the first place, let alone both together in the same package.

-- Anonymous, August 05, 1999

i am a writer. i write because i have to write. sometimes i put it down, but i know that i'll pick up the pen again another day. it's almost necessary. it's become something i have to do every once in a while to get my head on straight.

i write short stories. i write poems. i love poems. i write essays.

i'm currently reading a book called A Supposedly Funny Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace. It's a collection of essays and arguments. There's one about the Illinois State Fair, one about Lynch films, one about televisual culture and the metafictional world of post modernistic and "Image Fiction" literature. i find it quite interesting. dfw is a gifted writer.

i'm also reading _on the road_. by kerouac of course. i've put it off for long enough, and everybody else seems to have read it, so i figure i should too.

on the waiting list (waiting to be read) is a book called "dance dance dance" by Murakami. If you've never read anything by Murakami, START NOW! I read his short story collection called "The Elephant Vanishes" and it is WOONDERFUL. Very surreal stories about urban culture and the dissillusionment that comes with living in the modern age.

Okay, my favorite books (i really don't know if this is where i post all this crap but i figure why not): Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski. I've read other books by Buk but this one is the best! The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. You either get this book and love it or you hate it. i happen to love it. i feel a deep connection to holden. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. by Ken Kesey. and Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg (nonfiction). it's about writing. and umm... so many more but i'll spare you now.

bye.

-- Anonymous, September 03, 1999

Woo Murakami! I just read "The Wind-up Bird Chronicles" a few weeks ago. It was recommended and loaned by a friend. Half the fun of reading that book was trying to explain to people what I was laughing at. Or what that strange look on my face meant. "Oh, the main character just took his baseball bat to the bottom of a well, where he has entered a deep trance. You had to be there."

-- Anonymous, September 03, 1999