I see now that *part* of my motivation in applying for an MA course is
in some part trying to get this magic. There are other reasons of
course, some of which are real-world. Another is the fact that I've
always wanted to take an English qualification ever since I was
knee-high to a grasshopper. It maybe that I want to be in academia
(I'll have to think on that).
One course of action open to me is get out of my current job, sit
there and write.
Any poetecteras views on this quandry? Whether or not is nobler in the
mind to take an MA or would rather fardles bear and stare at windows
all the day, keyboard before me?
Roger
On 6/21/05, Ken Wolman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> roger day wrote:
>
> >Hi,
> >
> >Your play was useful in that it allowed me to expose a little of my
> >history to the list, so I tips me hat to you, whoever you are!
> >
> >Glad to be of service! I hope my bit-part fitted well in your theatre
> ></bows to rapturous applause>.
> >
> >I've thought of taking a Poetry for Dummies course because I've
> >sometime felt that I've been missing something, something that when I
> >write goes astray. Of course, books and courses are never the answer.
> >
> >
> And now Dr. Ken's Konfession. For years I believed such a thing
> existed. Poetry for Dummies. If they can publish books like "Sex For
> Dummies" ("Oh, THAT's what that's for! Hot damn!") and "Monte Carlo
> Simulations for Dummies" (not, I assume, how to win at Vingt et Un), why
> not "Poesie for Dummies" as well?
>
> Years ago, feeling that I was cheated of feature by dissembling Nature,
> having no idea what a poem was, how to write one (even though I had), or
> how to judge one without some Professor saying it was good, I tried to
> find the magic book that had all the answers. The book I chose? <sit
> down> William Empson's _Seven Types of Ambiguity_. No joke. No help.
>
> Oh, another plagiarism tale. True story. 1973, I'm a teaching
> assistant. Three profs and me, the Shakespeare lecture course. I
> thought I'd died and gone to Heaven. Then some kid in my personal
> section hands me a paper, I forget on what, but as I'm reading it I'm
> thinking "This kid writes fantastically, he can think on paper. Oh
> God--wait a minute." I focus on the kid. The kid is nice, not a doofus
> but not THAT bright. All of a sudden the writing sounds familiar. I am
> the guy writing a dissertation on audience/reader response in
> Shakespeare, and before I dropped him on his Scottish crown, Macbeth was
> in there. So I knew the classic critical writings: A. C. Bradley, c.
> 1904. I look at Bradley. I look back at the kid. It's the same
> words. Bradley didn't plagiarize the kid, I guess. I forget how, but I
> got a message to the kid to come to the office I was using. He did not
> seem like a jive-artist, just a jerk. He walks in totally unfraid and
> totally clueless. I confronted him with his unattributed quotes and
> Bradley's text. I thought the kid was going to cry, then faint. He had
> no idea that what he was doing was not kosher. NOBODY had ever taught
> this kid about plagiarism. He literally did not know he'd done it. It
> was easier for the teachers along the way to ignore the whole greasy
> issue until it got to the desk of a 31-year-old teaching assistant. I
> told him to get back to work, he had something like two days to correct
> the mess he'd made. The paper turned out to be not too hot but it was
> at least HIS not too hot.
>
> Ken
>
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