Poetry and Ambition
an essay by Donald Hall.
Although it is far from the main point of the essay (point: Poetry and Ambition), i find one of Hall’s arguement really compelling. In one of the sections, he said that one of flaw in the American education system, as opposed to the education in Europe, is that they seperate arts with academic. Hall argued that, in doing so, the education system is basically dividing the creative people and the intelectual people into groups so that one cannot have both qualities at the same time.
The example that Hall uses in his essay is the fact that colleges seperate creative writing with literature. How can one know how a writing works without knowing how to write? Hall questioned. So,yes Hall, how does it work when most critics nowadays are all accomplished writers, painters, and musicians?
There is a Chinese saying called Wen Wu Xuang Chuan. The saying is often used to describe Chinese generals who are also great scholars in their time. They excell in both the martial “arts” and scriptures. The funny thing is that even back then, there is also only a scarce number of people who possess both qualities .
haha well i’m glad this doesnt really apply to me cause, thankfully, for some strange reason in my 8th grade, i decided to audition to an arts high school and against the opinion of all my friends and family friends (my family is actually very supportive) I decided to enroll in the school. Arts+ Academic= Awesomeness
Theres also the question about the correct ambition…but that is another topic all in itself. Good thing Hall does a magnificent job addressing it in his essay.
