Why Creative Writing Courses Are Usually Full

“Such is the fated result of an assumption deeply buried in our collective mind. It grew there early in the last century when the artist as a social type came to be glorified as a hero, a seer, a genius. Geniuses must be allowed to do as they please while the rest of mankind gratefully brings its offerings to the altar. We now feel the consequences of this potent myth. Because art generates excitement, because a great many people have some little artistic gift, and because the life of the artist looks wonderfully free, more and more people in each generation decide that they want to be artists. And throughout the land one or another agency is at work to multiply their kind. Schools watch over every spark of talent and try to fan it into a raging ambition” (Jacques Barzun, The Culture We Deserve, p. 122).