The problem with being a writer? You have to get a job.

Illuminating essayish article in the NYT Sunday Magazine about the maturation -- or corruption, depending on how you look at it -- of the writing life in academe:

Though I sometimes chafe at my collar, just as often I appreciate the miracle of the job. A typical creative-writing professor has four months of summer vacation; teaches passionate young people a subject they actually want to learn about (and often enjoy); carries a light two-class load per term that is the envy of professors in other departments; and gains both a sense of belonging and ego satisfaction as a pillar — even a star — of a small, intense community of writers and readers.

I first wondered about this dynamic while pursuing my straight-ahead M.A. in English at Virginia. It seemed that some of the students were looking to get an M.F.A. in order to get a teaching job, instead of getting an M.F.A. in order to write better stories or poems. The saddest part of that last sentence is that this wasn't necessarily their choice. It's kind of what the world had thrust upon them as the worst of few options. Except, you know, being extremely talented.