"The poet and critic Robert Pinsky was even harsher, speaking of 'what can sometimes seem the sharp distinction' between creative writing and formal literary scholarship - a sharp distinction that came about to the detriment of both. On one side there is 'an immense elaboration of the techniques of composition' accompanied by a 'fatal ignorance of the past'; on the other side an 'elaborate sophistication regarding poetic theory' that goes with 'a fatal ignorance of composition.' The consequence, he said, is 'rhetorical pedantry in the poets; and arid nihilism in the critics.'"

- The Elephants Teach by D.G. Myers (1996)