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Friday, September 02, 2005

Classes so far,

one upper level course on modernism, one freshman/sophomore "writing in the disciplines" course, have been great. Lively students with interesting things to say. When I ask them questions -- "Who are the great modernist architects?" -- they answer: "Mies!" "Corbu!" And these are English majors mainly. Most impressive.

No, more than impressive. Exciting. I'm fired up.



We had a little fun with August Kleinzahler in my writing class. He's a poet and a memoirist. I like his poetry well enough, but his essays about growing up in New Jersey, Cutty, One Rock, are spectacular. Kleinzahler recently wrote a mean, mean essay about poetry which I loved and quoted in full on this blog (see August 2, 2005 entry).

In his essay, Kleinzahler makes fun of the worship by poetry boosters of one poem in particular, by William Carlos Williams. Here's the relevant part of it:

It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.

Poetry advocates love to quote this. Mark Edmundson, whose book Why Read?, my students and I discussed today, quotes it on page one. Garrison Keillor, the object of Kleinzahler's scorn in the essay, also quotes it. Here's Kleinzahler's take on the Williams lines:

A pretty sentiment, to be sure, but simply untrue, as anyone who has been to the supermarket or ballpark recently will concede. Ninety percent of adult Americans can pass through this life tolerably well, if not content, eating, defecating, copulating, shopping, working, catching the latest Disney blockbuster, without having a poem read to them by Garrison Keillor or anyone else. Nor will their lives be diminished by not standing in front of a Cézanne at the art museum or listening to a Beethoven piano sonata. Most people have neither the sensitivity, inclination, or training to look or listen meaningfully, nor has the culture encouraged them to, except with the abstract suggestion that such things are good for you. Multivitamins are good for you. Exercise, fresh air, and sex are good for you. Fruit and vegetables are good for you. Poetry is not.
Posted at: 9/02/2005 03:27:00 PM