"I was responding to your claim that we should expect something written by a college age student to be sophomoric. I said it ain't necessarily so. There are a thousand other examples I could have used but Rimbaud was the first to come to mind."
I know there are exceptions, but that's why they call them exceptions. I don't think college writing is sophomoric because it's American, I think college writing in general is either sophomoric or it's no more than a polished imitation of adult writing.
WHY?? College students are young, they have never really been out of school, they have very little experience of the world and very little knowledge of themselves. To illustrate compare the poems of Wilfred Owen before the trenches and after the trenches.
You know what I mean. A communique like the one we're arguing about has different values to different people:
-- it can serve to inspire people elsewhere who do not have this writers skill. (I have taught at the college level; you have no idea how bad most of the writing is.)
-- it can serve as a repository of ideas/phrases/arguments for others.
-- it can give people like us an idea of where the zeitgeist is at the moment among the student protesters
I'm too old to be into hero worship. You're right. This guy is not Rimbaud; not even close. 99% of humanity is not either. That's not the point.
Joanna