What confuses me is not the sensibleness of the question but the fact that, when addressed to me, it’s being asked of a writer who has taught writing, on and off, for almost twenty years. Imagine Milton enrolling in a graduate program for help with Paradise Lost, or Kafka enduring the seminar in which his classmates inform him that, frankly, they just don’t believe the part about the guy waking up one morning to find he’s a giant bug. Which may be why the question is so often asked in a skeptical tone implying that, unlike the multiplication tables or the principles of auto mechanics, creativity can’t be transmitted from teacher to student. Because if what people mean is: Can the love of language be taught? Can a gift for storytelling be taught? then the answer is no. It’s a reasonable question, but no matter how often I’ve been asked it, I never know quite what to say. From Atlantic Unbound: Interviews: "Reading and Writing" (July 18, 2006) Novelist and critic Francine Prose talks about creativity, literary craftsmanship, and her new book, Reading Like a Writer.
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