Vonnegut on Writing Programs

19 Jun 2009

View this link:

http://www.nytimes.com/library/books/052499vonnegut-writing.html

When I taught at Iowa, then Harvard, then City College, here is what I tried to get away with, only in effect, not actually: I asked each student to open his or her mouth as wide as possible. I reached in with a thumb and forefinger to a point directly beneath his or her epiglottis. There is the free end of a spool of tape there.

I pinched it, then pulled it out gradually, gently, so as not to make the student gag. When I got several feet of it out where we could see it, the student and I read what was written there.

All together a good essay if you’re looking for an excuse to go to grad school.