Francine Prose - Reading like a Writer

Reading like a Writer
Francine Prose

Can creative writing be taught?
It´s a reasonable question, but no matter how often I´ve been asked it, I never know quite to say. Because if what people mean is: Can the love of language be taught? Can a gift of storytelling be taught? Then the answer is no. 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. Imagine Milton enrolling a graduate programme for help with Paradise Lost, or Kafka enduring a 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.