It is really wonderful that you are doing this! Our culture so badly needs to return to ideals of free speech and open-mindedness, which is the only way we ever learn anything.
The Guernica debacle reminds me of how Elizabeth Gilbert recently withdrew her own novel set in 1920s Russia and based on a true story. Apparently the sympathetic depiction of Russians—even when set 100 years ago—was totally verboten.
I was enraged by her decision to obey the mob and censor herself, because my husband lived in the Soviet Union for two years and is close friends with a number of Russians who suffered under Communism. In addition, one of my very best friends is Russian and also grew up under Communism. Perhaps if readers were willing to read some history (or a historical novel), they might understand better how Putin was able to rise to power. They certainly would not find it as easy to demonize ordinary, innocent Russian people.
This announcement was promptly followed by a New Yorker Daily update in my Inbox with the headline “Have the Liberal Arts Gone Conservative?” Which makes me wonder, what is it about the Arts that renders them so susceptible to ideological capture either way? And how can *anyone* win if they’re being driven out of this space for the following two reasons: “because they were deemed problematic for writing characters whose identity categories did not match theirs, [or for] telling personal stories that ‘centered’ their own privileged identity”? What does that then leave anyone to write about, if not about others or themselves?
I had a nightmare of a time in my MFA program. It got so bad that the other students complained to the teacher about me and started emailing amongst themselves about how I should be removed from the entire program. After some students said they felt unsafe being in the same room with me, my teacher opted to have our last class on zoom (this was pre-covid) to avoid any conflicts. Craziness.
I sent in an application for the fiction workshop with Caeli. Looking forward to hearing back.
Brilliant! This is great news. If you’re looking for someone to teach documentary filmmaking, you should consider Meg Smaker. I saw her erstwhile-Sundance contender The Unredacted last week, and she spoke about her experience at Stanford’s graduate film program (hot take: “don’t go to Stanford”). She’d be a great addition to your illustrious faculty!
I wonder what it would’ve been like to take a class from Amy Wax. I imagine that it would’ve been a formidable and challenging but very worthwhile experience.
What a great idea. I’m no writer, so I’ll be looking forward to some of the other topics like history and philosophy.
And I’ve mentioned this guy before, but for the art section, when it happens, the realist artist and host of the Undraped Artist podcast, Jeff Hein could be an option. He’s been teaching art for a while and has his own atelier and teaches online as well. I’m sure you know other artists, but when it comes to realism, Jeff knows his stuff and is very well-respected.
Chen's article was indeed beautiful (FTR, her first name is Joanna) and the reaction to it from the mob equally as (if not predictable) despicable. I'm so excited for you about the Unspeakeasy School of Thought!!
Housekeeping comment… to get my subscription paid for a year, it took half an hour and attempting four different credit cards to make the payment. I received the rather odd message “Your card is not acceptable for this purchase.”You might wish to consult the provider because payment aught be easy.
I liked your writing so much that I refused to give up!!
I am a member of the accursed: an 82 year old white male who was raised in the South and educated there as well, with a BS in Biological Sciences. Interestingly, my electives were in Philosophy and Humanities, no MFA, however I I will dein to write herein.
My education and intellect lack the ability to understand the vitriol heaped on her and the truly insane decision to retract and apologize for the publication. Quite the opposite, it gives me hope for, if not peace, then detente.
I would be very interested in more stories about how the arts in all areas have been captured by the extreme left. There is one particular book agent in DC who has a stable of about 100 or more of these “authors” who are quite possibly the most obnoxious, harpy, judgmental, uninteresting, narcissistic group of white, privileged, affluent millennial women and they *all* have MFAs. This agent is the Typhoid Mary of bad agents/publishing and is the one who has unleashed a firehose of these godawful horrible writers into the book world. They are all cookie-cutter boring. They all have pronouns and believe Transwomen are women. Garbage in-Garbage out.
The most interesting & stimulating writers *for me* are those who are blue collar writers, rogue scholars and autodidacts. Today, having an MFA seems to make everyone write and sound exactly the same. It is group-think via Columbia School of Journalism (which in my opinion should be burned to the ground and the earth salted).
I stopped buying books published after 2014 because so much of it is so bad to the point where I now avoid ALL academic type of writers with any letters after their name because so many are just so tediously boring and pretentious. N+1 is an excellent example of literary fart sniffers. Keith & his narcissistic they/them sister, oh my sides! 🙄
It is really wonderful that you are doing this! Our culture so badly needs to return to ideals of free speech and open-mindedness, which is the only way we ever learn anything.
The Guernica debacle reminds me of how Elizabeth Gilbert recently withdrew her own novel set in 1920s Russia and based on a true story. Apparently the sympathetic depiction of Russians—even when set 100 years ago—was totally verboten.
I was enraged by her decision to obey the mob and censor herself, because my husband lived in the Soviet Union for two years and is close friends with a number of Russians who suffered under Communism. In addition, one of my very best friends is Russian and also grew up under Communism. Perhaps if readers were willing to read some history (or a historical novel), they might understand better how Putin was able to rise to power. They certainly would not find it as easy to demonize ordinary, innocent Russian people.
This announcement was promptly followed by a New Yorker Daily update in my Inbox with the headline “Have the Liberal Arts Gone Conservative?” Which makes me wonder, what is it about the Arts that renders them so susceptible to ideological capture either way? And how can *anyone* win if they’re being driven out of this space for the following two reasons: “because they were deemed problematic for writing characters whose identity categories did not match theirs, [or for] telling personal stories that ‘centered’ their own privileged identity”? What does that then leave anyone to write about, if not about others or themselves?
The Unspeakeasy School of Thought is fantastic.
I had a nightmare of a time in my MFA program. It got so bad that the other students complained to the teacher about me and started emailing amongst themselves about how I should be removed from the entire program. After some students said they felt unsafe being in the same room with me, my teacher opted to have our last class on zoom (this was pre-covid) to avoid any conflicts. Craziness.
I sent in an application for the fiction workshop with Caeli. Looking forward to hearing back.
Brilliant! This is great news. If you’re looking for someone to teach documentary filmmaking, you should consider Meg Smaker. I saw her erstwhile-Sundance contender The Unredacted last week, and she spoke about her experience at Stanford’s graduate film program (hot take: “don’t go to Stanford”). She’d be a great addition to your illustrious faculty!
What a great idea! I'm really excited to see what comes from Sherman Alexie's class.
This is fantastic news and so necessary. More and more of this, please.
That was a great buildup to the big reveal. Congrats on the launch!
The right idea at the right time. You never fail to make me happy i subscribe.
I wonder what it would’ve been like to take a class from Amy Wax. I imagine that it would’ve been a formidable and challenging but very worthwhile experience.
What a great idea. I’m no writer, so I’ll be looking forward to some of the other topics like history and philosophy.
And I’ve mentioned this guy before, but for the art section, when it happens, the realist artist and host of the Undraped Artist podcast, Jeff Hein could be an option. He’s been teaching art for a while and has his own atelier and teaches online as well. I’m sure you know other artists, but when it comes to realism, Jeff knows his stuff and is very well-respected.
Chen's article was indeed beautiful (FTR, her first name is Joanna) and the reaction to it from the mob equally as (if not predictable) despicable. I'm so excited for you about the Unspeakeasy School of Thought!!
Housekeeping comment… to get my subscription paid for a year, it took half an hour and attempting four different credit cards to make the payment. I received the rather odd message “Your card is not acceptable for this purchase.”You might wish to consult the provider because payment aught be easy.
I liked your writing so much that I refused to give up!!
Tillman
Ms. Chen is simply brilliant!
I am a member of the accursed: an 82 year old white male who was raised in the South and educated there as well, with a BS in Biological Sciences. Interestingly, my electives were in Philosophy and Humanities, no MFA, however I I will dein to write herein.
My education and intellect lack the ability to understand the vitriol heaped on her and the truly insane decision to retract and apologize for the publication. Quite the opposite, it gives me hope for, if not peace, then detente.
Tillman
I would be very interested in more stories about how the arts in all areas have been captured by the extreme left. There is one particular book agent in DC who has a stable of about 100 or more of these “authors” who are quite possibly the most obnoxious, harpy, judgmental, uninteresting, narcissistic group of white, privileged, affluent millennial women and they *all* have MFAs. This agent is the Typhoid Mary of bad agents/publishing and is the one who has unleashed a firehose of these godawful horrible writers into the book world. They are all cookie-cutter boring. They all have pronouns and believe Transwomen are women. Garbage in-Garbage out.
The most interesting & stimulating writers *for me* are those who are blue collar writers, rogue scholars and autodidacts. Today, having an MFA seems to make everyone write and sound exactly the same. It is group-think via Columbia School of Journalism (which in my opinion should be burned to the ground and the earth salted).
I stopped buying books published after 2014 because so much of it is so bad to the point where I now avoid ALL academic type of writers with any letters after their name because so many are just so tediously boring and pretentious. N+1 is an excellent example of literary fart sniffers. Keith & his narcissistic they/them sister, oh my sides! 🙄
This is phenomenal, and I’m so excited that you’ve put these classes together!