From: fchen@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Franklin M. Chen)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american
Subject: Re: Lack of AA literary culture (was New topic!)
Date: 6 Apr 92 21:12:33 GMT
Article-I.D.: Princeto.1992Apr6.211233.13527
Organization: Princeton University
Originator: news@ernie.Princeton.EDU

In article <1992Apr6.133551.5659@wam.umd.edu> yumei@wam.umd.edu (yumei) writes:
>Well, let's not forget the educational establishments that enforce such
>"standard EnglishSpecifically, the Freshman Writing programs all
>over the country keep up the "standard" beyond SAT tests.  Ask anyone
>who teaches Enlgish 101, you will find out that these teachers, however
>aware they are of the validity of "other voices," have to force their
>students to use not only standard spelling, grammar, but also standard
>punctuation and a whole bunch of other nuisance.  Part of the effort is
>due to the teachers' legitmate concern about the "marketablity" of the
>students.  The entire question, in my opinion, and I think that is what
>Alan is saying too, goes back to the question of power, rather than the
>specific usages of the language.  Hemingway, e.e. cummings and such are
>writers who have gained acceptance and approval of the literary 
>establishment.  And their writings hence have become "classic."  But,
>if you isolate a paragraph from Faulkner or Hemingway, and ask someone
>who doesn't know the source of this paragraph, he/she probably will
>think it as a piece of poor writing the way English teachers treat 
>some of their students' papers.

And so what?  Who reads Faulkner excerpts in isolation?  Who reads a
sentence in isolation?  "Therefore, the theorem is proved."  This
looks like "a piece of poor writing" if the main body of the proof is
omitted, or a bad joke like "Proof:  By lemma 3 and proposition 14.  The
reader can fill in the details."

And who cares what English teachers say or do?  The real world isn't a
classroom.  I would be more worried about _publishers_ than teachers or
critics.

Schools are designed to churn out clones of an "ideal citizen."  You
don't have to go along with the plan.  You can drop out, or you can "pay
your due," graduate, and move on.  Nobody's forcing you to dot your i's
or cross your t's.  You make up your own mind, weighing the
consequences.  Suppose you had to choose between becoming a musician and
becoming a physician.  You really love music, but you know that you
won't make a lot of money as a musician.  So what do you do?  It's up to
you.  You have to decide what's important to you.  If you decide to
become a musician, don't start whining about your low pay, because you
knew what you were risking when you made your decision.  Now suppose you
had to choose between writing in your own personal style and writing in
some safe, "accepted" style.  Again, it's your decision.  You take the
risks.  Beethoven was asked several times to compose in the "older
style."  He could have done so and settled down as a public favorite,
but he chose not to.  It happens that now he is a "classic," but others
are not so lucky.

The moral?  Don't _whine_; _act_ instead.  And if others are encouraged
by your example and barriers are broken, then you've succeeded.

	Franklin Chen