Posted on 09/29/2010 6:58:51 PM PDT by Feline_AIDS
Janette Turner Hospital is the author of Orpheus Lost and other books, and a professor at Columbia. She sent MFA students at her old school, the University of South Carolina, the following note about their inferiority. It is amazing.
Hospital sent this note to all of the MFA students on the University of South Carolina listserv. More than one of them forwarded it to us. "We're all enraged," one MFA grad from USC tells us. "She is nuts!" says another. Indeed. What's your favorite part? The personal revelations? The breathtaking undertone of insult towards those in South Carolina? Her special pet name for the Upper West Side? This is fertile ground.
From: "HOSPITAL, JANETTE"
Date: September 27, 2010 9:42:27 AM EDT
To: [Listserv]
Subject: News from a different MFA planet
To those I'm supervising and to all other MFA students:
[snipped for excerpting space]
As for news from this very different MFA planet, I'm in seventh heaven teaching here, and not only because I have Orhan Pamuk (whom I hope to bring to USC for Caught in the Creative Act), Oliver Sacks, Simon Schama, Richard Howard, Margo Jefferson, etc., etc., as colleagues, though that is obviously part of it.
My students also live and move and write in seventh heaven and in a fever of creative excitement. Columbia's MFA is rigorous and competitive but students don't just have publication as a goal – they take that for granted, since about half the graduating class has a book published or a publishing contract in hand by graduation – so they have their sights set on Pulitzers.
(Excerpt) Read more at gawker.com ...
They really were. My favorite: "Just replace all the commas with fart sounds--FIXED."
I’m happy she’s happy. Were she ever to come to a sober assessment of the quality of her writing, she won’t be.
"The true measure of a man's stature is given not by what they brag about but by what they take for granted."
Cheers!
Make her a White House Czar quick! She’d fit right in with the smart people.
I really think this is all a bit overblown. The lady is obviously in heaven regarding her new position and life, and anxious to share her joy by encouraging other students to follow her.
I think what’s riling people, is her naivete in matters of funding attending Columbia, and partaking in her lifestyle.
I howled at the comments.
Loved the one that said “I have many leather bound books and a mahogony library” or something to that effect.
Never get a writing major mad at you is my rule in life. Especially a good one.
Guilty!
Sour grapes.
Reads more like somebody sneaked in when her PC was open, without any security, typed the email, and sent it to all her email contacts.
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