How are university /litt/ students? Are they relevant? Do they read and write? Or do they just show up to classes to get the grades?
I'm on my last semester and am afraid of what I might find in university; inspired poeple or plebs. I personally read and write, but I honestly hope the competition will be worth >6000$ out of my pockets.
>>7630095
I graduated a year ago, majored in English.
It's on the whole dependent on the kind of school you go to. Mine was a liberal-leaning, arsty kind of department, so there were a lot of classes in more esoteric subjects.
The intro to creative writing courses werr essentially a workshop. But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. There were some fantastic assigned readings (I've kept the books for my personal collection), but there were also a lot of students who were clearly still in their "fan fiction" phase.
They almost always got weeded out after the first course. The capstone creative writing course what honestly one of my most difficult classes, and I'm thankful I took it.
>>7630107
> "fan fiction" phase
Yeah I get what you're saying, I have read a few myself and they just pick up popular scenarios
I'm thankful you're telling me they got weeded out, that means they changed course because they found it boring or too hard. Good thing.
>>7630107
Same anon.
You'll also qickly learn that viewing your peers as "conpetition" is stupid. You're there to focus on becoming better writer, not publicly stroke your literary microdick.
95% SJW tumblr hipsters who hate Yeats, Pound, etc. but like slam poetry, and who are not at all ashamed to circle-wank over Harry Potter in-class like children. they write genre fiction and are special snowflakes through and through.
5% sensible lit majors who do none of the above things, but who are so introverted and socially crippled that they allow the vocal majority to carry on running the show. (this introversion comes from the same place mentally as for many /lit/ users, a lethal combination of self-superiority and -loathing.) you can recognize them in your classroom because they sit there scared, but trying hard to emit vibes of culture and affability, smiling at you when you make accidental eye contact, nodding the whole class period at the teacher, probably turning in some great work nobody will ever read because they are effeminized spergs.
>>7630115
Nah I meant competition for netter grades as a whole, I know they're not my enemies or something like that. Plus there are workshops as you said (and I have assisted to some), and in those you can't just ignore anyone's contribution to the work no matter how shitty I'd think it is. After all, trying is better than not doing anything at all.
>>7630118
Oh, I got'cha. Yeah, sounds like you're of the right mindset OP.
>>7630116
But some classes have you build a collection of writings, which (if you feel confident enough about it) you can attempt to get published. And of course, considering "95%" of the population doesn't give two cent about poetry/essays/etc, I'll be stuck nonetheless with a tiny "5%". In both cases anon, you visibly are right.
>>7630116
This is entirely accurate.
You'll hear a lot about Harry Potter and feminism.
>>7630116
also I attend a public university in the American south, so this is an evaluation of that, by no means ubiquitous. if you can learn not to judge them at the same time that you recognize them as plebs (because it does not actually matter), then you will make friends and be OK.
of course not everybody is as autistic as I am, so you may not need the last bit of advice, but since I am on /lit/ I think there are like-minded spergs here who probably need to hear it.
>>7630116
It's surprising how different our experiences are. I didn't see any Potter circlejerking past intro courses. More often Austen and Bronte fangirling than anything
>>7630095
>go to state school
>take some lit classes for fun
>all the english majors are aspiring teachers who cant do math
>>7630137
I understand. I'd just let the plebs be, it wouldn't the first time I'd work with these kind of poeple. But I've found that sometime they"ll get angry at your work and start using ad hominems for no reason :')
>>7630143
If you're lucky like me you'll get a professor who thinks it is his god-given duty to break you. I left hating his guts, but ultimately appreciative of his vitriol
>>7630142
The job market for teachers is oversaturated, I don't understand why anyone would choose that.
>>7630140
>I didn't see any Potter circlejerking past intro courses.
it is depressing tbf. I thought it would go away, but I am in my Junior year taking 400-level classes and surrounded by Hufflepuff/Slytherin/whatever backpack buttons.
on the other hand, I am now taking my first creative writing course, and a couple of these folks write really well regardless. it is sobering to judge the hell out of somebody, and then they make your penis feel very small with a scene or story that is a lot better than yours is.
>>7630151
I would bet my paycheck it's beause teachers who work in at-need schools get loan forgiveness
>>7630153
You going to C of C by chance?
>>7630157
Ha! I've never thought of this one!
>>7630162
naw, UT.
they're going to disappoint you terribly, but they're not so bad.
>>7630142
aspiring teacher / lit student here.
I got straight As in math in high school, I just suck at it now because I haven't done it in years. The only reason I'm aiming to become a teacher is because I need a career goal and I don't know what else to do with an English degree. Though my grandmother and grandfather were both teachers and I have a great respect for the profession.
Great discussion of literature, guys, keep it up! Really.
>>7630255
Didn't get pruned so far, so yeah, I guess it's okay, get over it.
>>7630240
I went for librarianship, it's worked out well so far. I'm not making the big bucks but it's steady, easy work.
>>7630142
Getting a math minor lol
English major
It's all good
>>7630255
I mean if we have threads about writing, then it's not much of a stretch to include writing courses
>>7630095
Really depends on the university, more than anything else. I went to a STEM school, and all of my friends taking English courses were reading a lot of philosophy, politics, some metaphysics, many American classics, and a few British classics (Canadian school).
I had a few friends pursue English at less reputable, or more arts centered schools. They generally disliked it, since a lot of the reading was contemporary feminist literature, "modern classics" (really just Harry Potter, and this vein), and a lot of the more traditional literature gets shut down for being intolerant, racist, and offensive.
You probably won't get a job either way, but the STEM schools seem to give much better courses. Just expect to be mocked by engineers, physicists, and mathematicians.
>>7630255
when everybody is telling /lit/ majors that there is no hope after graduation, and when also /lit/ majors have to tolerate pleb infiltration due to kiddie-glove academia, this type of thread is to be expected, and sometimes these discussions can be helpful/productive. literary studies are an extension of literature m8. you should think it a good thing that some of us want to do something with our interest, besides shitposting and sperging out on 4chan.
>>7630323
> Getting shut down because muh view of society > anyone's view of society
Holyshit. And I'm not seeking a job as a teacher, I'm not even studying to become a writer, just a simple archivist :')
Writing, for me, is on the side and a priority at the same time. I may take some small courses to improve my writing of course, participate in workshops and such. But never a full blown diploma in writing.
>>7630274
i'm planning on doing this. while entry-level librarian jobs don't "make the big bucks," it seems like the more prestigious the institution your MLS is from/the size and/or prestige of where you're a librarian/less entry-level your job gets the better the pay is. thoughts on this? it's the only thing really that really worries me about the profession, so as a current librarian how do you feel about this? do you think your wages will be better at some point in the future as you move up/change libraries?
>>7630657
Did you do any volunteering at your local library before? Or any library, that is? That would be a great starting point. There, you'd be constantly exposed to DDC system and the general atmosphere.
>>7630669
just started at university, i'm trying to get a job in one of the campus libraries, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen this semester. i am planning to volunteer at one of my local libraries this summer if i can't get a summer internship in a library/museum/archive.
>>7630657
yeah/man
>>7630703
You usually apply for jobs or job listings in universitt and then might get a call a year or two after your trip. Keep searching, thatss good. So if you have a job in 2 years (after the diploma) and get a call back, you'll have another opportunity. Also check out every single library you know about.
>>7630657
Sorry for the late response anon.
Yeah, it's feasible to get a higher pay depending on your position. The actual location of where one gets their degree doesn't seem to matter very much -- I got mine through an online program (library paid for half of it) and haven't had any problems as far as promotion.
The biggest thing they look for is library experience. You must, must, MUST have something that shows you're invested in the institution. I went from volunteer to minimum wage part-time page, then full-time Librarian Assistant to librarianship. They wouldn't know me from Adam if I had just waltzed in with the degree and no experience. Being a familiar face helps you beyond measure.
My chances for promotion now are entirely dependant on how much responsibility I place upon myself. I've pretty much "plateaued" for the time being, because managerial positions are like hen's teeth. It doesn't help that this job isn't exactly strenuous labor, so many don't retire until well later.
If it helps you paint a picture, I work in Bible Belt, Suburbia. Were I to move up north I'm sure I would pull in a much bigger paycheck for the same position, but I'm content as is because the cost of living here is dirt cheap.
>>7630995
thank you!
>>7630095
>Go to school that is literally only good for Classics and Business
>Major in English (actually Creative Writing, but I'm changing it)
>In writing class
>Everyone's favourite book is Harry Potter
>All they do is write fantasy
>Only one person in that class can write, and she's a British exchange student
>I want to die
Should I transfer to a better school? I grew up near my current school, so my tuition is much lower than if I had to pay rent (thank you based parents).
Second year, by the way.
I took a creative writing class and on the first day the instructor asked us what was the best book we had read over the summer and some people hadn't read any books at all and had to go with a movie or tv show.
I went to a very good university and everyone is a soul-dead empty husk
Instead of lib arts people being interesting passionate bohemian dudes interfacing on some deep level with a tradition, they are more like trendy but apathetic and lazy hipster faggots who take every +1% boost to their knowledge and try to stretch it over themselves as if it were +4000% prestige
Even the few really good ones still are only "good" because they actually do the readings, at least
Everyone is dumb and disappointing
You are constantly surrounded by people who don't want to be there
People are constantly showboating their five pieces of knowledge, but paradoxically the desire to showboat never seems to compel them to amass more than five
Everything is fucking awful
>>7630095
Most of the plebs get filtered out by third year
Upper level classes are genuinely some of the best experiences I've ever had, both with profs and classmates.
Consistently good teachers teaching consistently interesting material, have had class mates make allusions to Beckett, the Divine Comedy and Wittgenstein in completely unrelated courses.
Compare this with the first two years where you can tell the profs don't care about your shitty intro course where they need to grade 200 mediocre papers and suffer through an hour and a half of retarded straight out of highschool bullshit questions like "could Aristotle maybe be wrong in an alternate universe with these specific conditions?".
I just smoked a lot of weed and skipped class while doing the readings most of the time, just get through this screening process and eventually you'll get to enjoy you entire course dedicated to Leibniz taught by a guy whose been studying Leibniz for the past 50 years and populated entirely by people who actually give a shit.
Is there really nobody who likes both Harry Potter and classic literature? Will I have to hide my Harry Potter enjoyment in third year the way I hide classic literature enjoyment now?
>>7631903
>I went to a very good university and everyone is a soul-dead empty husk
If your experience is anything like mine, then that fact is a result of "very good universities" collecting the young people who are best (usually through a mix of hard work and privilege) at jumping through hoops for the purpose of social climbing. They aren't really the best and brightest, and even insofar as some of them are they're only using it to fit in.
>>7632141
harry potter is not literature
>>7632141
I like Harry Potter, but it's not high literature, it's a children fantasy series.
People getting into English Lit in college wanting to be the next Rowling are obnoxious as hell.
>>7632141
I went to the Yale University bookstore and bought and read a copy of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." I suffered a great deal in the process. The writing was dreadful; the book was terrible. As I read, I noticed that every time a character went for a walk, the author wrote instead that the character "stretched his legs." I began marking on the back of an envelope every time that phrase was repeated. I stopped only after I had marked the envelope several dozen times. I was incredulous. Rowling's mind is so governed by cliches and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing.
But when I wrote that in a newspaper, I was denounced. I was told that children would now read only J.K. Rowling, and I was asked whether that wasn't, after all, better than reading nothing at all? If Rowling was what it took to make them pick up a book, wasn't that a good thing?
It is not. "Harry Potter" will not lead our children on to Kipling's "Just So Stories" or his "Jungle Book." It will not lead them to Thurber's "Thirteen Clocks" or Kenneth Grahame's "Wind in the Willows" or Lewis Carroll's "Alice."
Later I read a lavish, loving review of Harry Potter by the same Stephen King. He wrote something to the effect of, "If these kids are reading Harry Potter at 11 or 12, then when they get older they will go on to read Stephen King." And he was quite right. He was not being ironic. When you read "Harry Potter" you are, in fact, trained to read Stephen King.
Our society and our literature and our culture are being dumbed down, and the causes are very complex. I'm 73 years old. In a lifetime of teaching English, I've seen the study of literature debased. There's very little authentic study of the humanities remaining. My research assistant came to me two years ago saying she'd been in a seminar in which the teacher spent two hours saying that Walt Whitman was a racist. This isn't even good nonsense. It's insufferable.
English Writing major here. It's probly because the girls outnumber guys at my school 2:1, but almost all of my lit and writing classes are filled with hot hipster/athletic girls, but they're also pretty smart. One qt in my American Lit course could even read the Greek shit in The Wasteland. I spend most of my classes hiding my boners with a copy of Sun Also Rises
>>7632141
>Will I have to hide my Harry Potter enjoyment in third year the way I hide classic literature enjoyment now?
why do you need to be liked so badly? this need for validation, to fit in, conflict avoidance, etc., why are our most popular novels today novels about how it is OK to be special, even if the muggles dislike you, because you are a wizard!
I switched from English to Philosophy because Eng was too touchy feely muh feelings. English is an interesting subject however the modern day students may make it undesirable. If you have a dash of autism, philosophy is the better route.
Where are all the comp lit biddies?
>>7630116
Goddam this was my uni to a T. Only two other people I met who were serious about any form of lit was a guy obsessed with Celine; and a girl who did her thesis on Joyce.I should have married that girl
>>7630095
Can you fake having an English degree? Stuff like editing and whatnot, can it be done without a degree?
>>7632327
No, that would be the dumbest move in recent history.
>>7632185
nice bloom posting desu
33 here. All of my friends that are successful either went into STEM degrees (and usually dropped out to go into business), and specifically into Medicine. Those that got liberal arts degrees generally became housewives, work in service industries or became cops, or started their own businesses.
The one exception is a particularly brilliant guy who got degrees in near eastern language and biblical studies, and has his own large congregational church now, where at 32 he is a senior pastor in a super dedicated community.
these are anecdotes, but imo getting a degree in lit should always be accompanied by a minor in a fallback.
