Everything old is new again

Just as worrying about information overload is nothing new, slap fights about the value of the MFA and creative writing instruction have been around forever. Paul Collins looks into the history of the debate over teaching writing at the Rumpus, then in a second article at Slate he writes about the ur-text of self-help for aspiring writers, a book called How to Write Fiction by 26-year-old Sherwin Cody, published in 1895. The most instructive part of that story? The one and only novel Cody ever wrote tanked.