Continuing my closing tabs blogging series…

Here’s a small rabbit hole I went down, originally looking at how “show, don’t tell” isn’t objective writing advice, but the result of CIA anti-communist propaganda. (Full disclosure: I was definitely super pro show don’t tell. As of now, I barely write so I have no writing philosophies. But when I watch TV, I do prefer economical story-telling and that typically means I don’t enjoy too much exposition, but I suppose a little tell can go a long way.)

https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/10/14/16469616/show-dont-tell-political

The CIA Battled the Kremlin With Books and Movies

https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Iowa-Flattened-Literature/144531

https://slate.com/culture/2010/11/mfa-vs-nyc-america-now-has-two-distinct-literary-cultures-which-one-will-last.html

https://uncannymagazine.com/article/let-me-tell-you/ (this one is related bashing of show, don’t tell)

Also, I might get these two books:

The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters by Frances Stonor Saunders
The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing by Mark McGurl