Has it all been said? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Lalwendë · 06-19-2006, 05:01 AM

The whole business of doing a degree in English is designed to make you almost hate literature. I wouldn't recommend the subject to someone who finds a lot of 'magic' in their leisure reading, as you will be required to pull apart and analyse everything you read, and you will also have to read a lot - not just the primary texts (AKA the novel, story, or poem, in human language) but also many critical works and articles. You will be required not just to analyse but to apply types of critical analysis, maybe doing a feminist criticism or a marxist one or a post structuralist one.

An English degree can be very nice and relaxing and enjoyable with its lack of classes, but to do well, you may risk learning to hate reading.

I once worked in a school in Barnsley and asked another English teacher what she made of the books up for the Booker prize. She asked me what the Booker prize was, and being shocked I asked if she didn't read much these days. "Oh," she told me, "I've never read a book since University. I don't like reading." That kind of attitude was, I'm afraid, very common among the people studying English with me.

davem knows I don't bother reading all these critical books from cover to cover. I will pick one up and skim through to see if there is anything of interest, and if there isn't, then I won't waste my time. I also skim read articles. If any points come up that are of interest then I'll go back and read more deeply. I do this as this is what I learned to do at University. It would have been impossible to get any work at all done otherwise!

What I think the profusion of articles and scholarly works tells us is that there are a large number of fans who read everything. They must know every last fact and opinion and they measure themselves against the Tolkien yardstick of perfection. I wonder if scholars of Jane Austen or Shakespeare do this?

06-19-2006, 05:01 AM	#20
Lalwendë A Mere Boggart Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: under the bed Posts: 4,737	The whole business of doing a degree in English is designed to make you almost hate literature. I wouldn't recommend the subject to someone who finds a lot of 'magic' in their leisure reading, as you will be required to pull apart and analyse everything you read, and you will also have to read a lot - not just the primary texts (AKA the novel, story, or poem, in human language) but also many critical works and articles. You will be required not just to analyse but to apply types of critical analysis, maybe doing a feminist criticism or a marxist one or a post structuralist one. An English degree can be very nice and relaxing and enjoyable with its lack of classes, but to do well, you may risk learning to hate reading. I once worked in a school in Barnsley and asked another English teacher what she made of the books up for the Booker prize. She asked me what the Booker prize was, and being shocked I asked if she didn't read much these days. "Oh," she told me, "I've never read a book since University. I don't like reading." That kind of attitude was, I'm afraid, very common among the people studying English with me. davem knows I don't bother reading all these critical books from cover to cover. I will pick one up and skim through to see if there is anything of interest, and if there isn't, then I won't waste my time. I also skim read articles. If any points come up that are of interest then I'll go back and read more deeply. I do this as this is what I learned to do at University. It would have been impossible to get any work at all done otherwise! What I think the profusion of articles and scholarly works tells us is that there are a large number of fans who read everything. They must know every last fact and opinion and they measure themselves against the Tolkien yardstick of perfection. I wonder if scholars of Jane Austen or Shakespeare do this? __________________ Gordon's alive!