Response to "cheap shot Master of Fine Arts" cheap shot

I usually don't respond, but yes, you misread me -- badly.

My attitude towards MFAs is -- to paraphrase late great John Gardner,

"Only a talent which does not exist at all, cannot be improved by a workshop."

As for the wording, "Now you tell me --"

it's just something I picked up unconsciously from Naomi Lazard's translation of Faiz Ahmed Faiz's poem, in The True Subject.

The "you" is the universal "you" not "you in particular."

Here's the poem, and it's relevant to Iran and Tiananmen and Burma etc --

You tell us what to do.

When we lowered the boat of our resistance
into the river run with pain
how powerful our arms were
how crimson the blood in our veins!
We were sure that after just a few strokes
our boat would enter its haven

That's not how it happened.
Every current was treacherous with unseen maelstroms;
we foundered because the boatmen were unskilled;
nor had the oars been properly tested.

Whatever investigation you conduct
whatever charges you bring
that river is still there; the same boat too.
Now you tell us what can be done.
You tell us how to manage a safe landing.

Italics from original.
Poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, translated by Naomi Lazard, in The True Subject, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.