Dear English Lit students:
Does it ever bother you that we’re studying a dead subject? Like, it’s depressing to think we’re studying the thoughts of dead people. I don’t need to tell you that the market for English Literature jobs is not good. With the sciences, there are new breakthroughs all the time and all those discoveries are regulated by a rational, tried and tested method. That's the complete opposite of the humanities. Our so called interpretations are jargon at best, and what little credit English did have in the realms of philosophy will soon be completely undermined by neural-mapping.
There may be a very good reason why most English students are starry-eyed, absent-minded dreamers. Could it be that, despite our education so far, we chose to study English Literature because that's all we're really able to do? A mish-mash Jack of all trades subject that has the drawbacks of all the other disciplines and the benefits of none. I mean, certainly there is something to be said for building an argument, but Law does that better, and it's also more grounded because at least there's a set of rules that dictate correct and incorrect judicial codes. While studying Eng Lit, we brush elements of Human experience without ever going into full detail. Philosophy, R.E, Politics, History, Psychology... It's just one big whistle-stop tour that fails to really explain any of those subjects in the depth they deserve. Kind of like the off-cuts of meat. What that leaves us with is a kind of Bookology. We're essentially studying how a story narrative fits together through plot and symbolism, almost like art critics. And yet, does that really deserve a whole subject? From there it's not very far away from hobby territory, only that it isn't because when you make your hobby your degree, you basically turn your leisure into work. Medical students become Doctors. Biology students become biologists. Engineering students become engineers. History students become Historians. English Literature students become ...become ... Publishers?
Am I mistaken? Are we the butt of the educational cannon?
>>7533388
>History students become Historians
lol.
>>7533388
>implying history students aren't all sent down a chute into a trash bin to be collected and discarded immediately after graduation
>>7533435
Wow, really? Being entombed in my own corner of the humanitarian latrine, I thought they did pretty well. The more you know.
Just say you have "critical thinking skills" and get a job doing something else
A friend of mine majored in English and became a paralegal. Another one took the Pynchon route and became a technical writer.
>>7533388
You and I study the same subject, and yet are completely different. You have already swallowed the gunky fluids of Job Skills. You think an English degree little more than a poor passport to the corporate field. I will crush you. English is not a skill. It is an art— no, that gets it wrong. English is like a game. A careful game of Jenga built in reverse, carefully adding the one block of text to the next, churning out tower after tower of so-called knowledge crudely mangled into the shape of journal articles and library books. It is not knowledge. It is my entertainment. English, as I said, is a game, and I mean to play it better than any living human being. And that includes you. I will crush you. I will crush everyone like you. And when your child's assigned reading in EGL 301 is one of my essays, you will know the pain of a failed student of this great language of games.
>>7533530
Indeed we are. So what, are you like my nemesis now? That's cool... But how do expect to beat and Anon... Who's post got dubs?
>>7533388
As an English major, I think it is our own job to take classes in other human experience subjects and see them as electives, and pursue learning about them and researching them by ourselves. Otherwise, we'd end up teaching English lit like our professors.
>>7533388
I plan on teaching.
>>7533388
> There may be a very good reason why most English students are starry-eyed, absent-minded dreamers.
Maybe at Oxford, but everywhere else it's just a bunch of kids who want to be English teachers. Most English students don't read much more than their STEM counterparts outside of the classroom.
You know that "English Student" wasn't a thing until about a century ago? People didn't study "English Literature" at the college level. It's not really a thing worth doing unless you're doing a real degree alongside it.
>>7533388
I was studying Astrophysics when I made the switch to English. STEM degrees are great and all but there's not a whole lot out there for anyone right now. With a degree in Astrophysics (from one of the nation's most prestigious universities for that degree) you can either join a think tank, work for Boeing, or go on for your Master's. That's basically it. If I'm going to flounder among the working poor I'm getting a degree I damn well enjoyed working toward.
>>7533388
Does it ever bother me that we're studying a dead subject?
...No, not really. Though I suppose you're talking from the everyday convention of this shit being useless. Studying literature (in my case Spanish literature) helps me better understand certain mindsets and cultures, as well as opening a door for me to work on the fields of literary research (there's a lot of research going on and new stuff coming out regularily, you just need to find that shit), and that's enough for me.
>>7533388
It doesn't really bother me, because it's what I enjoy. I personally can't stand STEM subjects and I'm quite interesting in becoming an academic, so it suits me just fine.
Depends how vocationally-minded you are really.
>>7533670
t. that dude from Archer on the island with the pirates?
>Does it ever bother you that we’re studying a dead subject?
no.
>I don’t need to tell you that the market for English Literature jobs is not good
i don't need a job.
>what little credit English did have in the realms of philosophy will soon be completely undermined by neural-mapping.
this is several different layers of retarded. i can count four, but it might go deeper.
> Could it be that, despite our education so far, we chose to study English Literature because that's all we're really able to do?
in a sense yes, it's all i am able to do because i can't stand anything else. but literally? no. there's quite a few fields i could have gone into and i'm sure it's that way for most peoples.
anyway, nice b8 m8.
>>7534226
For hard sciences, if you want to stay in academia, any degree below Ph.D. is useless.
If I understand you correctly, you are saying that you were getting Bachelor's in astrophysics? Here's a spoiler for you: BA is not nearly enough to be even up-to-date in a field like that. You can expect to catch up with present-day research in like 2nd year of your Ph.D.
Your experience is completely irrelevant for anyone with an actual interest in STEM. The reason you quit is simply because you are lazy.
