Critical theory is stupid.

Why do I need to know about marxist theory, structural criticism, freudian criticism or even feminist criticism? Im all for feminism and learning new stuff but why do I need to learn this stuff? How is this gonna help me be a better writer? How is this supposed to make my books likable? When I write I just want to have it be interesting and entertaining, not some kind of reflection on society.

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swirlie · 31-35

Knowing this stuff you speak of will never make you a better writer because your ability to write is all about you, not about your knowledge of any of that other stuff you mention.

Critical theory is not stupid in and of itself, but not being able to write in the absence of knowledge of critical theory is where true stupidity lies.

If you are not a good writer now, you will not be a better writer even if you learned everything there was to learn about critical theory.

Captainjackass · 31-35, M

@swirlie I was already pretty good at writing. Im in school to improve my abilities but it feels like almost none of my classes are actually about writing.

swirlie · 31-35

@Captainjackass
Okay, fair enough. When I was in high school, very few of my classes were about writing either, though I was taking English Literature a lot and thought I'd be writing a lot as well, but I wasn't.

It wasn't until I had my course curriculum changed where I started taking 'creative, descriptive writing' did I actually start writing and only focusing on writing, not reading.

English Literature is about reading, whereas creative, descriptive writing is about writing your own stuff, not reading someone else's stuff.

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