tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post8891427581156180951..comments2024-02-23T03:28:33.435-05:00Comments on Culture Industry: The Biographical "Would"Mark Scrogginshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01431113440875342809noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-11641333470734278402007-04-20T19:24:00.000-04:002007-04-20T19:24:00.000-04:00You and I agree with Twain when it comes to what b...You and I agree with Twain when it comes to what biographers pretend to know about Shakespeare. Clemens said that the Bard's life is a reconstructed brontosauraus, made of a few odd bones and seventy barrels of plaster of paris. Don't misunderstand, Greenblatt is a sensitive reader of Shakespeare who has many original and valuable things to say about the plays, but the connections he draws between the Life and the Works are far too speculative, so like you I treat such discursions as informed historical fiction. Biography written in the subjunctive is infuriatingly uncertain. Ackyroyd's bio of the Bard makes Greenblatt look like a model of restraint!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-21641368751734695302007-04-20T16:44:00.000-04:002007-04-20T16:44:00.000-04:00My CW students probably think I'm bitch-queen, but...My CW students probably think I'm bitch-queen, but I don't let them "do" "self-expression" in my class. I make them think in terms of an audience, and what an audience expects, and how to play on those expectations... I thrust randomly selected (literally: they pull them from a bag) story elements on them so they have to work to meet the story's needs, rather than turning the story into their psyche's slave.<BR/><BR/>That said, when I started a section on poetry this term, I stood at the board and asked them to call out what poetry is: I got "image," and "rhythm," and so on, but I also got "emotional expression" - and I made them stop. I asked them, "now, if someone writes something really heart-felt, from deep in the soul, is that automatically poetry?" A few people said yes. "Really? Are you sure?" And I gave them hell. :-)<BR/><BR/>It might be a coincidence, but I've gotten amazing poems from this group!Amyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04736955125611064179noreply@blogger.com