It seems to be that time of year in which everyone gets all worked up about creative writing MFAs.
There’s a quirky article on my favorite website The Rumpus called “Thoughts From Inside the MFA Ponzi Scheme” which gently mocks MFA-ers for being indebted, navel-gazing, alcoholics (which, probably, we are) who have good “technical” skills but no ability to tell a REAL story. The REAL storytelling chops, it seems, according to this article belong to those at the top of the NY Times Besteller list: Nicholas Sparks, Steig Larsson and Katherine Stockett. And, of course, horror of horrors: FRANZEN.
There are some funny moments in the piece, including a top seven (slightly misnumbered) things that people in MFA programs worry about. Chief among them:
2. Am I going to get a job after this? (Probably not.) Will I have to go back to food service? (Probably yes.)
3. Has my writing gotten better? Have I become good enough to get an agent? (Shrugs.)
And a diagram about the place of high modernism vs. (the true horror) genre fiction in our society.
Ok, this is what I am going to say about all of this. The first thing is that getting an MFA is about one thing and one thing only and that is time to pursue your writing. Could you be better served taking two years off from your life, living in a cabin in Montana, reading a heck of a lot and writing like crazy: maybe. Might you also turn into the unabomber, highly likely.
MFA programs are probably the one way for a bunch of slightly unstable creative types to get together and think about literature. To me, this seems lovely.
Are there problems with MFA programs? Of course. There are probably too many of them, for one. They are kind of snobby about the types of writing that they promote (I should probably publicly apologize to all of the students I discouraged from writing zombie novels when I was your teacher, please, please, please write zombie novels) which is probably what leads to the anger about rarefied ivory tower boring formulaic “sitting around talking about feelings and drinking tea” writing. On the other hand, if you can afford to go and are willing to take a break from your life and you want to work on your writing in a supportive environment. WHAT COULD BE BAD?
I think sometimes our society values practicality over learning in a way that is kind of frustrating. I went to a college that literally does NOT allow you to have a pre-professional major. If you want to go into business, you have to major in econ. Law? Sorry, political science or history for you. Teaching? Why don’t you learn about the topic you want to teach instead of taking courses on education. Yes, the world needs engineers and technicians and doctors. And certainly one’s education should prepare you for that. But creativity is something that needs space to develop. Our world doesn’t really allow for that anymore–rents are too high, resumes can’t have gaps, and then there were (are?) preexisting conditions so health insurance must be had. And so, the solution is the MFA program. I’m all for them.
That said. There was also this HORRENDOUS letter circulated this week from a snobby former University of South Carolina professor eviscerating her poor students for not taking advantage of all that NYC has to offer them. Ignoring the fact that they live in South Carolina. This letter is evil, haughty and patronizing. This is the type of thinking that gives MFA’s a bad name. That’s not even to mention the OUTRAGEOUS amount of tuition that this professor’s current students are being charged in comparison with, I’m sure, the very reasonable amount that her former students are being charged. Her current PRIVILEGED students will be in debt forever with the same insecurities as her former ones, but with an anonymous committee that is likely to fail them (according to her letter) with little to no explanation. Her former students are able to access the internet, as well as planes and automobiles and surely can enjoy what New York has to offer in person or virtually and certainly don’t need their conceited former teacher telling them what to do.
Now I will climb down off of my soap box.
Hooray for MFA!!!
Hi Miriam,
You are so right on so many levels in this post. Where do I begin to comment?
In many ways, during my MFA tour of duty, I was able to enjoy the company of many undiscovered, fine writers who had yet to have their first published gig. (In my experience, life gets complicated once they sign with an agent.) It was a fun, yet [insert complex emotion here] time. But with hindsight as 20/20, I wish I had prepared for leaving the cocoon of the MFA program. Sure, I knew that employment was not what I was going for. I was luck to depart the MFA writing community after 3 years with a “real” job. But I left without dropping bread crumbs and have found it difficult to return to luxuriating in a community of supportive writers.
If you do go for an MFA, whatever you do, leave bread crumbs and keep a balance of friends–both pre-MFA and post-MFA, you’ll need both sets to help with your new life after you’ve spent years focused on your belly button.and booze. And write like hell while you are inside the program. It could be one of the most fruitful times in your creative life!
Amen! Well said.
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