This is the point of failure for American writing education: it simply produced bad writers. The reason it does this is because it treats writing as something where requirements are meant to be filled, as if lining up all of the ingredients of a cake on the counter were the same thing as baking. Which, I would like to emphasize, is not the fault of the teachers, but the fault of the administrators and bureaucrats who decided that writing education needed to be standardized.
Read MoreIt’s been a while since I did a Pirating College piece (I’ve only done the one, honestly,) and I’m not teaching at the moment, so there’s a bit of an itch. So, let me talk a bit today about a key concept I bring into my classes: Register.
Read MorePart of this has to do with a thunderous absence in the contemporary period, something that has been present for so long and no longer exists in the context of our time: where is counterculture? It’s entirely possible that I have simply been passed by, that I’m no longer plugged in to the same networks that I was at one time. However, it definitely seems to me that there is a decided and somewhat worrying absence of a unified counterculture at this point in time. It feels like the moment at the top of a roller coaster when you can no longer hear the chain clanking along, but just before the drop happens — the mechanism isn’t involved any more and the mechanics have taken over.
Read MoreSo, classes start for me next week. I have three, and there are (obviously) major computer system problems that are making getting the damned things set up a real headache. As such, two things come to mind: first, for the next sixteen weeks or so, posts might come later in the day; second, I need time to work on things, and the level of invention I normally aim for isn’t really possible this week.
Read MoreOne thing that I feel explains not only a great deal of why so many well-meaning young people fail to grasp the nature of the world around them, but also why so much American political discourse is utterly useless: Americans simply cannot do anything like a materialist analysis of current events.
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