Asaf Bartov (ijon) wrote,
Asaf Bartov
ijon

McGurl answers Batuman on Creative Writing

Also enjoyed Prof. Mark McGurl's well-argued response to Elif Batuman's review of his book The Program Era, on the rise of the "creative writing" classes.

I found McGurl's rebuttal of Batuman's seemingly gut-reaction, mandarin rejection of modern fiction convincing. Perhaps I've been guilty of an unthinking Batuman-like attitude myself. Reading McGurl, I notice that I do, in fact, approve of quite a few modern fiction authors, and this without being at all well-read in contemporary fiction.
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