Good or bad tales from university english/literature/writings course?
Was pleasantly surprised today.
>lecturer asks class why they've stopped reading books before
>I didn't sympathise with the characters
>I didn't agree with what it was saying
>it was too pretentious
>all met with soft, general laughter
>lecturer sets all stations to BTFO
>takes us through lectures by Woolf and some literature crtiics
>we should not allow our biases to alter our perception of a work
>successful readers allow themselves to comprehend the form and content regardless of personal prejudice
How's lit in uni? I'm applying this spring and i'm a bit worried for my lack of social skills and general anxiety.
>>7699631
Could be hard for you if you're ""quite"" socially inept. However people I've seen like that seem to get along alright, generally with other people similarly anxious.
If you're really worried go to the early university/college organised events as you'll meet people who will then be available when you're on your own.
Only had first lecture so can't give you a definitive answer, this uni is also has the best humanities program in the country so it could differ.
To give some info we're doing close readings of - The Winter's Tale, Mrs Dalloway, Northanger Abbey and Great Expectations
>>7699641
Are there lots of presentations or conversing in class? I would just prefer to shut the fuck up, go to lectures and write essays and my shitty novel.
>>7699673
lectures no, however you generally don't need to go to them and can find them online. Classes will be smaller and most will have some 10% mark or so for being productive during class, but you could go and understand the material and only interact very sparingly and I'm sure you'd do fine.
>>7699679
cheers mate.
>be me
>2012
>going through a Tao Lin / Zach German phase
>see a depressive qt in class reads "Richard Yates"
>feel it's fate somehow
>ape Tao / Zach's anhedonic deadpan prose
>mimic the monotone voice while reading a story in class
>"Tyler walked to the store. He bought a plastic bottle filled with water. He drank some of the water"....etc
>story has to be 3k words long and it feels like it takes the whole hour to read
>tfw I drank some bottled water at one point and someone in class said "Anon drinks bottled water" in a bored-sounding voice and people snigger
>tfw oneitis looked at me as if I was retarded afterwards
>some people interpreted it as satire or just didn't look at me
>prof. warned me that if I'm only there to mock creative writing then I should leave
>tfw I cried in front of him
>tfw switched major to STEM and now making $90k p.a. after tax
>>7699687
I really hope this is real
>>7699699
It is real except for the final line since in reality I just dropped out and have been NEET ever since.
The worse thing is that the story features the protagonist attending a writing class in college and I figured it would be "cute" or something to express my affection for the qt by changing her name and having the protagonist want to talk to her but tell himself he's too weird etc.
I think that explains the "look" I got at the end.
>>7699702
fuck that's hilarious and a bit sad. I feel like unless it was very bad the professor was a bit off - hyper realism can be a style too, and dullness purposeful.
>>7699714
He didn't seem to like me. Other people were content to turn up to class and listen to him discuss his own writing or his view of some random book he'd just read and when I'd ask him a question or offer a different perspective there'd be an awkward silence and people I guess thought I was being a nuisance for the sake of it. I mean I wasn't I was just bored listening to this guy kill time (and money) by spieling about something everybody else was too bored to register or complain about. In my story I referenced him as a (paraphrased) "depressed-seeming creative writing professor from Minnesota who had published two collections of short stories, both to marginal if any acclaim and in print only due to his tenured college allowing him to include them in his syllabus" It was supposed to be funny and I figured he'd just slap his knee and laugh but he just glared at me. I think he had es ee ex with one of the girls in my class who had bulimia and obviously had a history of self-harm.
Maybe I'm autistic, I don't know. The qt ended up dating a long-haired guy from New York who conducted himself like a bohemian. His main influence was DFW and when he read his story out he'd bounce his knee under the desk and wave one arm around as if it was a poetry slam or some shit, reading fast and then reading slow for dramatic effect. I thought he was total phony (he admitted to only reading "a third" of IJ) but he was the sort of star writer in our class. I got so mad when I saw them on campus together on the lawn drinking wine out of plastic cups that I stole all the DFW books I could find (I later realized some of his books were in the non-fiction area , including Oblivion) and put them in a large recycling trash can where people put their superfluous printed pages etc.
>>7699741
So I feel like you're just making this up if so bravo otherwise you went to an insane college, I am kinda sad we didn't have this kind of drama.
The description of the prof. is pure devastation as well he should have sucked it up and given you a decent mark.
>>7699749
Not making it up. I probably have the story saved somewhere on a USB or something but I haven't read it since then and it still makes me feel bad at times.
>>7699741
You sound like an over the top greentext joke character.
>>7699758
What do you mean by that?
>take American lit class
>assigned reading is filled with old shit like Walt Whitman and Henry James
>students ask prof why David Foster Wallace isn't on the reading list
>prof says DFW is a very talented writer but too minor to be considered
>students start throwing things at the professor and booing him
>he runs out of the room crying
>the next day a newprof is there, who is much younger than the previous one
>he says he's heard about the controversy over the last prof and is here to fix it
>says he's added Infinite Jest to the reading list
>everyone applauds and cheers
>prof: "... but I've also made a few more adjustments because there was just too many dead white guys on the list."
>students are silent and afraid
>prof reveals the new reading list, and it's filled with garbage like The House on Mango Street, and Diary of a Part Time Indian
>tfw students can't say anything against these books or else the new prof will berate you and call you a racist
>>7699762
I mean your attitude and behaviour sounds like the sort of thing someone would make up as a joke as it's so ridiculous.
>>7699770
>Diary of a Part Time Indian
Lol
>>7699770
pls no shitpost
Honestly before I decided to take an elective creating writing class in my second year of college I was just your average 5'8 nerdy guy with just about enough self-awareness to feign a sense of mystery to the (very) few females who occasionally looked my way. I was a passive nobody, a nihilist who saw so little value in life that I hadn't even bothered to grasp the definition of nihilism and just used the word to justify waking at 3pm and lying in bed posting on 4chan and eating dark chocolate biscuits. I dressed in the same clothes my mother had bought me before I entered my senior year at Bishop Kelly High School in Boise, Indiana. Here I was on a campus surrounded by young people whose will to succeed in life (if only in the sexual sphere) totally overwhelmed my own wan, tame approach to life. When I finally submitted my interest in taking a creative writing class I was the kind of sad, sorry kid you see standing with his arms crossed with the hunched posture of an animal who feels he exists to be nothing but potential prey to those around him. Well imagine my surprise when I turned up late to my first writing class after staying up to post about the Zimmerman / Martin court case until 6am, dressed in black and grey and dark brown with the usual sullen, impassionate expression on my pale face. Within minutes of sitting down I realized that this is where I truly belonged. My G-d! This was home! This was what I'd been searching for! Every class I turned in a new story, and in every class I could sense the anticipation in my peers' eyes as someone came to the conclusion of their own story only to give way to my own new piece of writing. The faculty was stunned! Never before had they come across someone like me (a semitic-seeming lady who appeared to have no salaried role at the college but appeared apparently from nowhere to make rye remarks about those who attended it) often referred to me aloud (in the presence of my peers, the shame!) as "that boy genius" and "our blooming author". By the end of the course (a mere semester!) I had become a 6'2 beast roaming the intellectual plains. I wore heavy plaid and baggy jeans and hesitated and winced before replying to some question a cute undergrad holding her textbooks across her chest and looking up at me with wide eyes and pressed lips as her girlfriends talked and poked each other nearby. I was envied and respected in equal part, and with each new grant, each new scholarship offered to me, I was fast approaching that moment when a highly intelligent boy becomes a man of the world, an established member of the intellectual elite. The world was mine at last! It yielded to my will at the gentlest of touches! Professors nearing retirement, seeing me striding towards them along the narrow staff corridors, frequently patted their pockets and stepped back into their offices muttering something in an attempt to make me think they weren't just retreating from an inevitable intellectual defeat. Creative writ
>>7699771
Well I don't know how to respond to that, or if I should.
As a computer engineering major, I some how got into JAPN 417, which was a literary class on the culture and society of Japan. We read quite a few books, and it really gave me more respect for literature and Japan's history.
For my final paper, I ended up writing about how Japan's loss to the US in WWII was the best possible outcome for their economy and culture. Japan was able to demilitarize, allocate all wartime infrastructure into commercial infrastructure, and establish incredible trade channels with the US, all while acting as a strategic, yet uninvolved ally against communism in the far east.
I got a 97 and I still re-read the paper sometimes, just because I believe it to be my best work.
>>7699810
sounds pretty interesting desu, would read.
>>7699623
>I didn't sympathise with the characters
>I didn't agree with what it was saying
>it was too pretentious
>'It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.' -- Aristotle
Man, fuck the people who refuse to exit their echo chamber. They do not belong in an institution of higher learning, and the fact that they are there is evidence of the devaluation of higher education as a whole.
>>7699826
it made me quite sad honestly, but it is a 101 course so it's not that bad. What the lecturers said was essentially that quote but in a nicer way.
>>7699804
I would suggest you respond by learning to see yourself as others see you, then work on making yourself into less of a ridiculous character.
As a profound thinker and a highly competent lover, I some how got into GENS 212, which was a literary class on the burden of being an artistic genius. We read quite a few books, and it really gave me more respect for literature and my own literary genius.
For my final speech, I ended up talking about how going unnoticed in one's lifetime was the best possible outcome for geniuses such as myself. To forego fame in one's own life with the prospect that your deep, gasp-because-it's-true "message" will finally be comprehended by some future generation.
I got a 160 in my IQ test that year and I still remember that speech sometimes, just because I believe it is my best work.
>>7699804
You should respond by getting your shit together, you're a (bad) joke my man
>>7699741
>I referenced him as a (paraphrased) "depressed-seeming creative writing professor from Minnesota who had published two collections of short stories, both to marginal if any acclaim and in print only due to his tenured college allowing him to include them in his syllabus"
Pure gold man.
>>7699838
In what practical way can I get my quote unquote es haitch eye tee together?
>>7699702
how do u survive as a neet? honest question
>>7699847
I have many female relatives (four aunts, one grandmother and one step-sister) and most of them have dogs (one has a cat) and they pay me (I suppose it's a job, but I don't pay tax) to walk them or to babysit them if they travel out of state or something. But I'm living in my mom's boyfriend's house and he doesn't charge me rent so that helps. I know he would if my mom wasn't here since he really dislikes me and I think he has some sort of alert system on the pc I use (I spilled coffee on my laptop and haven't gotten it fixed yet) which tells him if I search for certain bad words. He works in IT and knows about that stuff. He tried to "frame" me one time when I first moved here by accusing me of mis-using his computer for un-Christian purposes and to be honest I think my mom believes him over me.
>>7699867
I'm so fucking glad I wasn't born in America
>>7699867
Okay, you either just exposed yourself as not real or you're too pathetic for me to even want to make fun of you anymore
>>7699872
Why? What's that got to do with it?
This thread is hilarious.
>>7699876
do you live in America?
>>7699834
>a profound thinker and a highly competent lover
Top kek!
I want it marked on my grave.
>>7699908
Yes?
>>7699912
>Why? What's that got to do with it?
??????????
>>7699804
You sound kind of like you'd be buddies with that guy who references characters from his own writing. Can someone please post the screencap, it's the one with Sean Bean laughing.
>>7699919
you're really pulling a Gregory Berrycomb, anon.
>>7699867
>which tells him if I search for certain bad words
>accusing me of mis-using his computer for un-Christian purposes and to be honest I think my mom believes him over me.
>>7699687
>>7699702
>>7699741
What an awful professor. You're not going to school and paying tuition so that you can entertain your professors. They are being paid to provide instruction to you. Saying you're "mocking creative writing" and that you should leave are reprehensible. *Especially* when a significant portion of great literature is explicitly about mocking others/other ideas! Jesus what an awful, awful man.
I feel bad for you, anon.
>>7699741
> In my story I referenced him as a (paraphrased) "depressed-seeming creative writing professor
>I figured he'd just slap his knee and laugh
>I think he had es ee ex
>Maybe I'm autistic
>I thought he was total phony
>I got so mad when I saw them
>>7699962
>es ee ex
Reminds me of that autist ullillilia
>>7699631
former Autismus Maximus/English major here to tell you there is hope. The Lit classes should be a breeze as long as you do all the readings and participate in the discussions at least once every other class. As for your anxiety, assuming you're not 1/10 fuck-ugly and/or a full-on brony, you'll be pleasantly surprised to know that most people you run into are pretty awkward themselves. Even the normies are dumb when it comes to talking, so if you ever run into someone who seems like a dick for no reason, chances are they just don't know how to articulate themselves. Overall, people at uni are fairly chill as long as you're not afraid to come out of your shell.
tl;dr just keep your chin up
>>7699876
>accusing me of mis-using his computer for un-Christian purposes
Nah, I'm calling your troll.
>>7700004
I'm not trolling or lying. He works for the IT department for the City of Sheboygan and is a former alcoholic who found Christ. He found out from my mom in passing conversation that I had tried em aye gee eye cee em you es haitch are owe owe emm ess when I was fifteen with some "friends" (they were my cousin's friends and I don't think they liked me or appreciated my company but I used to "steal" things for them from walmart) under the bridge on New Jersey Avenue. I guess he thought I was consuming dee are you gee ess in his house and since his son (who is 26 years old) lives a wayward life I think he was both angry and maybe protective of me in some sense.
>>7700018
>em aye gee eye cee em you es haitch are owe owe emm ess
ebin meymey
>>7700027
eff ooh you are tee we oh zet eeh are oh bee ehl aye zet eeh eet eff aey gee gee oh te
>>7699741
kinda reminds me of my writing professor from last year
>be English Writing major, need a writing elective, decide to take some class called "Dreaming and Writing"
>up until then, I dominated every single writing class ever
>I don't know if I'm that modest or if everyone else has low standards, but according to 90% of the English faculty and other students I'm the next Hemingway
>lol_ok.jpeg
>Dream class is filled with pretentious hipster music majors who give me the stink eye for some reason. Barely even know them, but soon as I stepped in they all looked at me and I got this sudden vibe that I wasn't wanted there. Never had that feeling in any other class
>professor is some forty year old, skinnyfat, scraggly haired dude. Seemed like a cool guy, always cracking jokes and whatnot
>entire semester the prof has us writing weird dreamy poems. Didn't care about the style or technique or any of the other stuff writing professors grade for, we were only being graded on how absurd the poems were
>for example, some smelly fat tumblrgirl in class gets a 100 for writing a poem about fat shaming and flying twinkies or something
>Admittedly I'm not the best poet ever, but every poem I hand in the professor hands back with the entire piece dissected in black ink
>would've been fine but I couldn't read one fucking word of his handwriting
>barely explained what he wrote when I asked him about it, but when any other student came to him for advice the professor had all day to chat with them
>whole class loves the professor. I'm trying real not to be the bitter student but it's really hard when he sucks at his job and he opens every single lecture with, "Y'know, as a published author people are always asking me..."
>Google the professor one day
>turns out the guy only has one book published, it's a 40 page poetry anthology. More like a pamphlet, really. It's decent, but nothing earth-shattering
>mfw I realized the class was taught by a total hack
I'm definitely not as autistic as you, but shitty professors are the worst man
>>7700060
What's the point of using greentext if you're still going to write something that is tl;dr?
>>7699925
Berrycone*
>>7700065
because I just smoked a whole buncha pot and I don't know better
>take class on subjectivity and personhood
>discuss how perceptions of personhood are malleable between cultures, and the west is often considered relatively rare in its every-human-is-a-self-contained-unit view of individuals
>discuss how even within western culture however we have gradations of personhood and its associations of responsibility, like when talking to children or the elderly/infirm
>have autistic bout of enthusiasm for the concept and ramblingly ask about it like a self-conscious aspergers buttbaby
>question is received well but my mannerisms make everyone politely titter amongst themselves with me subtly excluded from the joke that i'm a weirdo sperg with no social graces and everyone knows it
>subtle but uniform vibe from entire room that i'm a child to be condescended to on some level
>realise i've just been classed under "infirm" and demoted to sub-person
>>7700114
Hello ridiculously self-conscious family
I actually did not speak in class for my first year of uni. Better they think I'm some sort of fucking crazy-eyed Henry Fonda from Once Upon A Time in the West motherfucker than an autistic chimp in a fez who dances for the organ grinder of sexuality
And it's sad that I have to resort to conjuring images of Frank, but goddamn it, yuppies and prep school kids are so fucking insufferable they make me want to go Agent Cooper on the nearest window
>>7700122
FUCK YOU DONALD
>>7699741
Assuming any of that shit is true, your professor sounds worthless but you sound like Eliot Rodger so that's not much better.
>>7699741
>es ee ex
>take only English major requirement class
>essentially watered down high school english class
>every english major has only read YA, TV personality memoirs or pop-history/science in the last year
>professor tries to be really hip
>teaches poetry section on Beyonce's new song
>5 minutes of guided meditation at the start of every class
>direct quote "okay class today we're going to pass the bunny ball"-shows class ball with bunny's face on it-"and tell each other what kind of environment we need to feel free to speak"
>skipped over fiction in 2 weeks
>2 months devoted to alt-lit and digital-lit
>every analysis is race, disability or feminism based
tl;dr
my English professor cares more about students thinking she's hip and fun than literature
>>7699834
Dear sir, pray tell, woulds't a fine gentleman such as yourself care to partake in the sharing of witty repartee? Tis a rare day indeed where one may meet a genius of such stature as mine own, and the pleasure from such encounters truly is exquisite, not entirely unlike the gentle caress of a velvet fedora 'pon my high brow.
>>7699810
>praising US foreign policy in a liberal arts setting
>not instantly receiving a failing grade, getting put on administrative probation, and being publicly shamed in a two page featurette in the university newspaper about the oh so problematic rise of imperialistic attitudes on campus
I know this is a thread about creative writing classes, but at least try to make you stories believable
>>7700002
>assuming you're not 1/10 fuck-ugly and/or a full-on brony
i'm a decent looking fellow, just incredibly insecure and shy and i blush like a motherfucker when doing a presentation or speaking publicly.
>go to stem school
>no english courses whatsoever aside from 1101 and 1102, the required ones for every major
>freshman year, sign up for 1102
>figure all the classes will just be general literature
>turns out every session is different with the topic being chosen by the professor
>mine is "Folklore in Videogames"
>oh god
>entire semester is spent trying to justify this shit
>nothing but interactive media
>only reading we accomplish is in the form of two short stories
I fucking hate engineers. They can't enjoy or even appreciate a single thing outside of their very narrow interests. The autism I see day in and day out is astounding.
>>7700368
Don't worry anon, the engineers probably hated the class just as much as you did.
>>7700368
Fucking man babies just have to tie everything into their precious vidya
>>7700387
No. They thought it was "so much more interesting than boring old books from like a hundred years ago." One of them lives on my floor and spends several hours a day practicing super smash bros combos as captain falcon to compete in tournaments. Three or more hours. Every single day.
>>7700480
He better be playing SSBM or earlier, otherwise pleb
>>7700480
lol who the fuck mains falcon?
>>7700060
I lost 2 (two) poetry contests in high school.
I had the chance to read both; and both were the most dry narratives I've read, they weren't even poetry.
But my poetry, which I tried to keep 'orthodox, but free-verse' lost.
I also received a poor mark on the final that year, the poorest of any writing assignment I've done that year, for inexplicable reasons. I think it's because high school teachers are entirely unqualified to analyze any writing beyond the deadpan that the standard is based upon.
>>7700622
To continue, since I neglected any stories from university:
I majored in engineering and minored in mathematics, because I was a positivist at the time.
Because of this, I was largely alienated by the proto-Tumblrisms present in the late 2000s. Again, I was expected to A) be deadpan (but as biased) as possible in any 'formal writing' course, but B) write about how Canada is a multicultural paradise and other Tumblr-analyses in place of actual creative writing.
I, of course, did neither.
>>7700622
>>7700641
OR you're just fucking bad at writing. You don't get into classes thinking you'll remodel english literature from top to bottom under one semester, no, you're there to sit your ass down and get good grades based on whatever the teachers wants. Who gives a fuck about what you want, learn to take it from behind for christ's sake.
>>7699789
You're from Boise?
>>7700650
I'm not bad though, I'm published now and all that.
I'm also 28 and have been out of university for nearly 6 years now, and as I said before am orthodox the majority of the time.
The average professor is barely qualified, either. I have no respect for them unless they give me a damn good reason: actual examples of their writing and analysis.
Without that, they may as well be:
>>7700060
>>7700168
>>7700368
By all means though, keep sucking academia's teet. They surely can never be wrong.
>>7699623
It always bothers me when people are like that: the characters are unlikeable so that means, to them, that the character is bad and the narrative is bad. This is just simply not true and I wish people were more intelligent to recognise that an unlikeable character isn't necessarily a bad one.
>>7700658
Because Bishop Kelly High School is an actual school in Boise, you wouldn't research that for a shitpost.
not a classroom but a book store
> walk into the local "hip" book store
> it's full of people, try navigating my way around them, never liked big crowds
> find the classics section of the shop, it's an empty shelf with five copies of mary shelley's frankenstein and a copy of The Great Gatsby with a big sticker reading "back 2 school" on its cover
> have a quick look around the shop but it's mainly cookbooks, maps, YA fiction, iTunes gift cards, crosley record players, and Wii games
> there's a coffee bar that's really busy in the corner of the shop, some big sofas to sit on, look really comfy
> begin to sit down, woman from the coffee bar tells me the seats are only for customers and that if I didn't order a coffee that she'd shout really loudly in my ears
> "s-s-sorry, i'll have a coffee, please"
> she shouts at me for not getting in line
> people in the line begin turning their heads in my direction, girls are laughing at me and the guys are checking their privilege
> I can feel myself about to throw up as the coffee bar worker blows on a rape whistle and gets her mace
> my stand up from the sofa is followed by applause, prompting me to go back to the empty classics section of the store, hiding behind the shelves hoping nobody saw me
> pick up Frankenstein, begin reading to try calm myself
> some of the girls from the coffee bar follow me, pointing and laughing "he's right here looking at school books!"
> I throw up into a copy of Frankenstein
> my pants fall to the floor and I can't stop farting
> I clench my buttcheeks to stop the farts but then my irritable bowl syndrome begins and I can't stop the farts and I'm sure some speckles of shit float down
> the girls screaming and blowing their rape whistles
> a tall negroid prince carries me out of the store over his shoulder and puts a hex on me
> as I'm carried out of the store, placed on the pavement outside, some charity volunteer hands me a copy of The Communist Manifesto
>>7699623
I was actually like them, but then I discovered where this self-imposed tunnel vision will lead me (nowhere). Now I alternate different worldviews in my shitposting personas, feels so much better.
>Studying Death in Venice
>Sorority girl raises her hand
>Why did the main character become obsessed with the boy?
>Professor says he just did
>But why?
>He just did. It just happened
>But why? I don't understand how that could happen
This went on for several minutes.
>>7699867
>mis-using his computer for un-Christian purposes
>"honey, our son is using this infernal machine made from ten different kinds of materials, we need to crucify him"
>mfw
I seriously think you should head for classical studies if you're genuinely interested in literature. You will have to learn Latin, Ancient Greek and probably French but you'll quickly be drowning in literature, classics, theatre, poetry, history and geography. Chances are you'll never have to follow a single course in “modern literature”, creative writing or politically acceptable work analysis. It's the best way I can think of, whatever you want to pursue a career in academics, history, edition or simply be an author.
>>7699810
You got a 97 for arguing the orthodox mainstream approach?
Damn nigga.
>>7700715
You should get less than 50 for thinking the quality of a papier depends on the “mainstreamness” of its point of view.
>>7700662
>I'm not bad though, I'm published now and all that
You'll have to elaborate, please. And I'm not saying they're not wrong, it's just that courses are made for the grades, nothing else. If you want to impress poeple, go in workshops and sign up for a litt contest. But the classroom is no place for frivolous creativity.
>>7700730
>grades are more important than honesty and ability
The first poetry contest I lost, the poem was written by a kid in the 10th grade.
It was prose with pseudo-couplets about a soldier who misses his dead friends written in the least evocative way--complete realism.
The second time, the exact same nonsense; boring, shallow non-poetry won the poetry contest.
I wouldn't mind it if they were actually better than me, but they didn't even write poetry. They should have been eliminated, but won because transparency is what impresses their funders.
>>7700726
And you should get over 90 for a paper that brings new areas of discussion to a debate.
>>7700670
>it's mainly cookbooks, maps, YA fiction, iTunes gift cards, crosley record players, and Wii games
I thought this was real until I got halfway through.
>>7700670
solid pasta, SOLID
>>7700773
I know it's a shitpost but I've been in those "hip" book stores before and they do sell crosley record players and iTunes gift cards
>>7700114
underrated post
>>7700780
But this is just literally what it's like to be inside a Barnes and Noble.
>>7700670
> "back 2 school" sticker on Great Gatsby
SHOTS FIRED, FITZGERALD BTFO
>>7700703
>you'll quickly be drowning in literature
>>7700758
Yeah I get that, most contest have cookie-cutter criteria so poetry (for exemple) doesn't die. It's astonishing how many poeple write "poetry", when it's actually just prose text put in a cool fashion.
Does the contest have a website? Sometime they publish the winning poems online, so I'd like to see that.
>>7699623
>successful readers allow themselves to comprehend the form and content regardless of personal prejudice
Step the FUCK off, you GooberGator shitlord!
>>7700670
>>7700795
It was my high school's contest. The second one was a national contest run by the Royal Canadian Legion.
The latter does post its winning poetry and essays, somewhere.
>>7700792
That's exactly what I had in mind. I don't regret it half a second.
>>7700814
Okay well if it was just high school then that's nothing tbqh familiarus. No biggies there.
I'll see for the RCL, thanks.
>>7700814
I've skimmed through some of the winning pieces. Well it's RCL what did you expect?
>>7700670
>>7700858
What did you write on both accounts? That is.
>>7700879
The same thing, basically. A 'hymn' about the entire population being affected from the perspective of a single soldier who believes he is going to die.
>>7700670
>charity volunteer hands me a copy of The Communist Manifesto
lost it.
>>7699623
There's a 30 year old in my undergraduate Don Quixote seminar who continuously interrupts the teacher to talk about the failures of Cervantes and Kant's 'phenomenological narcissism." He also writes exclusively in calligraphy pens and flirts with this 19 year old. I can't make this up.
>>7700936
sounds like a patrish desu
>>7700670
> a tall negroid prince carries me out of the store over his shoulder and puts a hex on me
I feel bad about laughing so much over the hex thing.
>>7700936
>19
worthless old hag.
>>7700936
That dude sounds cool as fuck.
>>7700936
>He also writes exclusively in calligraphy pens
i'd shoot him to be quite honest
>>7700670
anybody still taking classes?
I'm in Detective Fiction and Literature during the cold war and all have great books rn
>>7700368
>not being able to pick up on the undercurrent of Japanese mythology in most weeaboo games
It's like you don't want to have fun.
>>7700349
Girls will think you're cute in uni.
>>7701062
>that pic
Literally my worst nightmare. If I don't get a full-ride for my MA or there's no financial support I ain't doing that shit. I'm living off my low income poorbux for my present undergrad years, but once I stop getting support I'm booking it.
>>7700480
>not maining Jigglypuff as you listen to an audiobook of Note from the Underground.
Jesus what a pleb.
>>7701185
i really, really hope so.
>>7701176
Don't forget Western mythology. I'd take that class if it weren't full of undergrads who'd probably just write about Dark Souls.
>>7699623
>take creative writing course at community college
>write fantasy genre fiction like everyone else because I'm an autistic nerd like everyone else in the class (except 1 or 2 people)
>everyone liked my partially completed story
>don't get a whole lot of useful feedback except "finish it"
>can't really complain about that since I had no idea what to say about other people's stories either
>don't actually finish the story
>still get a B in the class because the class has no standards
>>7700670
>>7700670
Thank you for bringing such joy to the world, anon.
>>7700788
reddit detected
>>7701429
reddit detected
>>7699631
just go to class
no matter what, go to class. Even if you're sick or your mother's dead or you broke your leg from being ran over by a car.
It's 100x easier to convince yourself it's a good idea to stop trying and drop out if you've stopped going to class.
>>7701900
Listen to this anon. I had roughly 10% attendance in undergrad and I very much regret it.
>>7701308
that dude is kinda trolling you. the only girls who will be into you are the ones you consider less attractive than yourself. everybody aims high, yourself included.
>>7700346
you're speaking tongue in cheek, but not everyone at uni is pants on head sjw
>>7699826
All of these things are my criticism of McCarthy's The Road. I mean I finished it, but it was droll, pretentious garbage.
>>7700769
it's undergrad, not Scientific American. everything's just a formal exercise.
>>7700368
Oh god iktf.
>Be me
>went to private prep school in high school
>come to uni
>forced to take "learn how to write because you've never been taught how before"
>take a creative writing class that was actually pretty good
>read works by other professors at the school
>shit I'd never have found out about otherwise
>the assignments were varied but not superficial
>transfer to a new school
>oh no you need to learn how to write, nobody's allowed to skip English fucking 102
>welcomebacktohell.docx
>>7702026
>I had roughly 10% attendance in undergrad and I very much regret it.
why
>>7699673
I know two people who are "working on their novel." I'm not exactly encouraging you to give it up, but those two douches are some of the most shitty, pretentious, McCormac/Kerouac wannabes I've ever seen. Do yourself a favor and don't cultivate an "aesthetic." The writing absolutely must speak for itself and not be carried by the inertia of wanting to be a writer.
>>7702087
not that anon, but it's the same for me.
Are you asking why about the low attendance or about the regret?
>>7702098
The regret. So long as you've got everything taken care of I don't see the point of skipping class.
>>7702087
you're paying for class time and office hours. not going to class is throwing away your money. even if you're on scholarship, you probably wasted that time by smoking pot or sitting in front of a screen. either way you're worse off than you could've been.
>>7702105
I often feel like I'm missing out on potentially engaging lectures or conversations, and maybe even meeting people that can actually hold a conversation about literature instead of just namedropping. In short, it feels like I'm not getting the most out of my university experience.
>>7702123
yes and no. a lot of people these days don't read much. that doesn't mean they can't analyze a poem or novel. they're middling it. you can probably find a few whose interests align with yours (modernism ftw).
>end of semester, creative writing class
>some guy who wrote shitty poems all year, call him G
>G comes out in a rapturous communication of how writing changed his life and saved him from suicide
>basically admits to being depressed right there in front of us
>everybody dismisses him as usual because G is a shitty writer
>professor even interrupts to end the class
>I stay after to tell G to keep his chin up
the class was disappointing, didn't improve my writing, never heard from G again
>>7702087
I regret it because I graduated with a shit GPA (high 2s). I'm in grad school now and my test scores would have put me into an even better school on a full ride if I had a higher GPA. Additionally, I wish I knew all the shit I studied better even though I'll never use it. As it is, it was just wasted time.
>>7702109
I am worse off. I literally spent the time speeping in and going out 5-6 nights every week. I went so far as to miss tests because I decided to go out drinking and I knew I could still pass with a 0 on that test. Complete waste of time.
I've never missed a class since starting grad school and I feel like what I'm doing is actually beneficial. I ended up completely disenfranchised with undergrad because I saw it as worthless. In reality, it was just my behavior that made it that way.
I did have fun at the time though...
>>7702137
Also, I was a STEM major. That was probably part of why I skipped. The material just wasn't that interesting and I could bluff my way through enough to pass. I should have studied lit but it wasn't even available at my university. Current studies are more in line with what I enjoy.
>>7702135
>you can probably find a few whose interests align with yours (modernism ftw).
I probably could (and did) but I don't know how to make friends which is why the only people I know in the city I moved into to study are lowlifes who don't have anyone else to hang, a gay dude in the closet who wants my fine ass and a meh chick that is way too into me.
Nice anecdote, poor G. Probably mustered up a lot of courage for that moment, only to be hit hard by reality.
>>7699789
good
>>7700346
The dude was writing about the failure of Japan and the collapse of its Empire. How could there be a rise of imperialistic attitudes?
Ma'fuckers like you don't know nothing about historical context or making a credible counter-point.
>>7699876
Because you're a fucking NEET. You contribute nothing to society and yet you live. Beside the US, Japan, Canada and Western Europe were else in the world does this happen?
>>7702096
>The writing absolutely must speak for itself
Well this is exactly what i'm trying to do, something honest and pure and i have no interest in cultivating some pretentious literary aesthetic; i'm too self-aware for that.
>>7702036
>the only girls who will be into you are the ones you consider less attractive than yourself
this is kind of happening right now. i'm a chubby magnet.
>>7699867
>He tried to "frame" me one time when I first moved here by accusing me of mis-using his computer for un-Christian purposes and to be honest I think my mom believes him over me.
I'm not sure about your mum but guaranteed this guy is into some kinky shit on the side. No guy who works in IT is that puritan with their internet searches 100% of the time. Not one.
>>7703384
And I should add that this guy sounds like a fucking snake. The ones who protest the loudest against this sort of shit always have something going on behind closed doors. You see it in the news again and again. Men who represent "Christian family values" getting caught fucking gay rent boys and shit. I'm not sure what this guy is into but I can tell you that it's definitely something if his paranoid ass is trying to frame you to make him look like more of an upstanding person by proxy..
>>7699867
yikes
>>7699919
>>7699623
While I enjoy studying Literature in class and I have some absolutely world-class teachers, some of them are extremely biased. They are all intelligent though, so I don't particularly mind as they don't try to indoctrinate us.
My girlfriend did have a problem though. She was in a History class and when someone said Trump lost one of the Census the teacher yelled "WOOHOO" and later set her sights on a girl from California stating she "probably never had History before". On the other hand she has a teacher who skips questions that were assigned as homework which he deems too biased one way or the other, which is pretty based.
>>7701185
Hell, I think he sounds cute
>>7699623
>Write a couple of short stories
>submit them to my Uni's writing journal
>they both get selected to be published
Feels good man
>>7699623
>tfw STEM
>tfw classmates and most people are your definition of stemtard (I never truly believed in their existence until I joined university)
>tfw no /lit/ stories
>tfw the only nice person i've met was a dude who talked to me in the street because he saw me reading a Stirner book and he moved to philosophy after 3 and half years in memechanical engineering
>>7703667
And here is my face. Thanks newmoot.
>>7703668
>Dominoes
Saddest thing in that picture, anon
>>7703696
I hate american pizzas.
>>7703667
>(I never truly believed in their existence until I joined university)
I know that feel
>tfw the only nice person i've met was a dude who talked to me in the street because he saw me reading a Stirner book and he moved to philosophy after 3 and half years in memechanical engineering
But what the hell are you going to do with a philosophy degree?
>>7703724
Easy there, baby boomer. Only niche careers require specific degrees. Just earning a degree opens up a ton of avenues for anyone with a decent work history.
>>7703724
Yeah my question exactly. But I was reading that shit (Don't recall what book exactly) and he came up to me and we started talking. Then he said he didn't have the stomach to spend 5 years in that enviroment and was moving out. The problem is he was on the 7th semester of Engineering and was going to start again from zero. Luckly I have more stomach and the people of Electrical engineering here are a little better than memechanics. We had a introduction class to "Academic writing" (Fonts, formatting, quotes and how to write articles, wuite useful for people like me who never had contact with the academia) and I cringed with the teacher when she asked what where they reading, or tried to talk with any of the students.(She was aware of her audience)
>>7703738
I'm genuinely asking. What kind of work can you get with a philosophy degree that isn't teaching?
>>7703739
>and I cringed with the teacher when she asked what where they reading, or tried to talk with any of the students.(She was aware of her audience)
Oh yeah. I've seen people read in lectures, I can't remember the name for it, but basically mangas that are like the animes with the guy being surrounded by girls all the time and so on.
I'm only in IT education for the money. How far in are you?
>>7703750
I have a philosophy degree and I'm a datacuck.
>>7703754
>and I'm a datacuck.
Which is what exactly?
>>7703750
2nd semester Electrical Enginering, I'm not going to do IT, going into the area of power generation or telecom, I really like engineering but I like everything else too, so I read and study a bit of everything.. No she asked something like "What you read this week?" for some people (smalltalk) and they had this cattle like expression that translated to "I don't usually read books teacher but I don't know what to answer". Here with a phiosophy degree you can't do much. People who do it are either :
>1. Potheads who enter the course because muh philosophy and very very low grades required for admission
>2.People with other degrees who like it
>3. People who have nothing else and decide to do Philosophy
But yeah, if you graduate in it you are either teaching, writing or giving new age self help lectures for mad dosh.
>>7703761
Data Management, i.e. staring at spreadsheets and databases all day. Similar to what Georges Perec did, and something I will do until my inevitable breakdown takes place. The world is a disgusting place and life is a repulsive burden.
>>7702518
>America oppressing poor POCs
Yeah check your priv
>>7703763
I feel similarly. I enjoy programming, but ultimately it isn't as fulfilling as /lit/ related subjects. But man, the money you can make, I know a guy who made relatively obscene amounts working from his own apartment. He could legit work the equivalent of about a week, week and a half, and be set for the rest of the month. It is odd how many strange people there are in engineering though.
I had philosophy in High School and I've learned more after finishing High School than I did in the class itself. And then obviously like you list, the bad types who pick philosophy at university would be a negative. Also for some reason a ton of girls pick it as well, same with psychology. At least a positive would be all those cuties.
>>7703767
What did your degree have to do with getting that job? I don't understand.
>>7703788
Yeah, I haven't learned programing yet. I will be forced too however in the following semesters. I just likeeverythingI'm probably going to join abiology labbecause why not. I really leaning towards the phisical part of the business, antennas, telemetry, power generation and trasmission, EM coupling and the likes. And here on the 3rd world engineers actually are overpaid.
>>7703803
Working on programming is like math but infinitely more satisfying.
>And here on the 3rd world engineers actually are overpaid.
You're in a 3rd world country?
>>7703810
Brazil, kinda. But here there is an absurd demand for STEM (programmers too but do to your nature phisical location doesn't really matters much I guess), unis are free and good (the one I'm in atleast) and as soon as I learn french I'm going abroad on govermint monies.
>>7703815
>But here there is an absurd demand for STEM
Feels like that's what everyone needs. And programmers too yeah.
>and as soon as I learn french I'm going abroad on govermint monies.
Solid plan.
>>7700670
You've made my day
>>7702055
UK universities' grade systems tend to go:
40-50 pass (Third class)
50-60 2:2
60-70 2:1
70+ First Class
-70-80 original knowledge presented
-80-90 original contribution to debate
-90-100 new theory
>member of my uni's creative writing society
>love writing in blank verse
>datmetre.soundwave
>submit to the termly publication
>get accepted and sent back the suggested edits
>first verse has been basically butchered
>metre is gone
>why
Why, /lit/?
>>7703849
Tell them they're violating your artistic vision and creative output.
I am now studying history but in one of the lectures the lecturer built case for other ways of writing history in something that closer to literature forms of dialogues or with more mimesis.
somehow some were bothered by the lack of objectivity as if the form of writing would change anything in regards to objectivity that wouldn't already exist in the oxford essay format of 5 lines paragraph.
>>7703854
I don't want to be seen to be a cry baby, and the problem is I'm only a second year student who doesn't study English lit, but they're a third year lit student with editing experience.
>>7703830
Who /newtheory/ here?
>>7703874
Well I guess you have to accept then.
Keep sending them more stuff though, if you can get it in once you can get it in again.
>>7703849
I got lucky, the only thing my Uni's termly publication wanted to change was the title of one of my pieces.
>>7703886
But they accepted it to begin with, must have had something good.
>doing a course about creative non-fiction
>final assignment is choosing someone you know and writing a piece about their experiences
>theres a kid who has already openly admitted to being raped and being attacked on the streets multiple times (without anyone asking mind you)
>asks the teacher if he could interview and write about one of his attackers
>teacher awkwardly tells him it wouldnt be a good idea
>he ends up writing about his gay obsession with some dude in his therapy sessions
i literally (literally) couldn't make this up
>>7703895
yea, they saw something good, but what you took to be datmetre.soundwave just came across as a plodding, slavish doggerel, so maybe they saved you from yourself
i mean i haven't read it i have no clue, maybe the editor is just an idiot, but who knows. just cause something is metred doesn't automatically make it better than free verse, and i speak as someone who hates this "recent" trend of making everything free verse
>>7703908
>I could post the two versions here and see what people think?
sure, but just be aware some publications no longer take stuff if it's been publicly posted in any way shape or form, and that might include a korean cave painting imageboard
but it's a uni publication so i doubt they'd care/would be willing to hear you explain if for some reason they came across it
>>7703911
>>7703912
Okay, the piece is called "Brussels in Winter", I've posted it here a couple of times. Here is the original:
Ambitious drifts of snow still cling,
Somewhere between a street lamp light
And waffle house, to greying roads
That sparkle; melting gold from lamps
Are blurring lines, and smudging out
The borders drawn on cobbled streets
Left sprawling, carelessly adrift.
La Grande Place never looked so sweet
As when we laughed to nothing-jokes
And ran like madmen, wild, to dives,
Just barely eighteen. Manneken
Was laughing with us. Still he grins,
Though echoes roared in smoky rooms
Have faded from there long ago.
If troubled houses beckoned us
Return, we never heard their calls.
And maybe, somewhere in those streets,
The carefree boys still laugh and run.
And the edit:
Ambitious drifts of snow still cling,
somewhere between street lamp light
and waffle house, to greying roads
that sparkle. The molten gold from lamps
is blurring edges, and smudging out
the borders drawn on cobbled streets
left sprawling.
La Grande Place never looked so sweet
as when we laughed to nothing-jokes
and ran like madmen, wild, to dives,
just barely eighteen. Manneken
was laughing with us. Still he grins,
though echoes roared in smoky rooms
have faded from there long ago.
If troubled houses beckoned us
return, we never heard their calls.
And maybe, somewhere in those streets,
the carefree boys still laugh and run.
My thoughts:
>I agree with the lower case starts to subsequent lines, it just makes sense.
>There is something of a metre in the first stanza, but it's too inconsistent to me.
>Maybe switching between free and blank verse will work?
Would like to hear your opinions.
>>7703925
Sorry, there was formatting to distinguish between the two but I guess it disappeared.
>>7703925
er, not commenting on anything else yet, but...
>love writing in blank verse
do you know what blank verse means..?
>>7703925
I stumbled on the article on "a street lamp light" but then also stumbled on the missing halfbeat at the end of the verse in the edit. Can see why they'd want to remove it but I guess it's not worth that worse issue. Then again I don't know the first thing about poetry
>>7703925
the use of iamb meters are much more effective in the second two stanzas, which the editor appears to have left untouched beyond capitalization
the way you enjambed words in the first stanza makes reading the poem while adhering to iambs very unnatural, which is why i think the editor changed it. in fact, there appear certain places in the first stanza where you were forced into choosing less-than-ideal words/phrasing just to fit into the iambic structure, in which case you might as well just relinquish it. examples include:
>a street lamp light/and waffle house
>melting gold from lamps/are blurring lines
i'm afraid i'd have to side with your editor on the edits
>>7704004
I work for a Uni literary publication and sift through a lot of poems like this, whenever we send edits we try to never compromise the writer's artistic integrity, but I have to side with >>7703958 it's a little choppy for the sake of meter, which that's cool if it does it the whole way through but it's a little too variable the whole way through.
>>7704004
For future reference blank verse refers specifically to unrhymed iambic pentameter, not just any unrhymed iamb lines.
>>7704042
No, it doesn't.
>>7704061
..yes it does? Am I being rused
>>7704066
I'm afraid you're just wrong.
>>7704042
My mistake, sorry
>>7704067
>>7704069
>>7704093
OK I did a bit of Googling, and apparently, by some definitions, blank verse is not restricted to unrhymed pentameter. It would appear, that from least to most strict, definitions range from:
>unrhymed regular lines
>unrhymed iambic lines
>unrhymed iambic pentameter lines
Wikipedia opens with "Blank verse is poetry written in regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always iambic pentameters."
I can't think of any examples of things written in non-iambic pentameter, or variants thereof, considered blank verse. Is there literature that fits this? The poem in question by anon is iambic tetrameter, which I do not believe is ever referred to as blank verse?
>>7699789
nigga you expect me to read All That Shit by You?
>>7704112
Yeah I'm not sure, all the blank verse I've read in my Lit program is unrhymed iambic pentameter, I'll ask one of the poetry professors at some point today.
>>7704112
i dunno about random places on the internet having defnitions
poetry foundation is legit enough http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/glossary-term/blank%20verse
>>7704144
>>7704143
yea i mean i'm pretty sure for all practical purposes saying blank verse = unrhymed iambic pentameter is perfectly fine, but you can be super pedantic about it and go by some weird technical definition to say that's "wrong"
the common "violations" of iambic pentameter blank verse can, i think, more accurately be called modifications of iambic pentameter. e.g. first line of paradise lost, to be or not to be, etc.
>>7703849
>get story published in school lit mag
>excited, read over first paragraph in print
>notice a misspelling
>embarrassed, check over my original document
>realize that in my original draft I had used a different word entirely and my word was spelled correctly
fucking editors
Would you believe me if I told you that my lecturer asked our class to watch a movie-adaptation of a book instead of reading the actual book because the lecturer deemed it "too violent" and didn't want us to feel "uncomfortable"?
a) Guess the book
b) Guess what country I live in
When thinking about it, I don't know if I want to laugh or cry.
>>7704448
American Psycho
USA
>>7704876
They make it more political act, that is to say an issue of the public life, but they are correct about how bullshit excuse it is the death of the author, its a bit worst then "its symbolic" when its misused or forced upon.
>>7704876
A solid point butchered by his/her ridiculous call to such radical and nonsensical action.
>>7699826
You're also being too one-sided. There's times when a book tries to get you to like a character and identify with their ideals, and presents them as some kind of divine truth, but the moment you look at it too closely it starts tearing at the seems, and you're able to point out the flaws in the books internal reasoning everywhere. When that happens, this kind of criticism is perfectly justified.
>>7699741
how does one conduct himself like a bohemian
>>7704876
>#postmodernism
>>7705621
That works often need to be appraised contextually, and that using critical tools like DotA can supplant authorial intent and dilute meaning. That style of criticism has its uses, though, which is a reality that he/she glossed over.
>>7705641
Sure I can agree with that. I was put off by all the nonsensical race stuff I suppose.
>>7705621
the reader make the content he read meaningless in itself forcefully as he reject any try to understand the intention of the writer to begin with. this done even when its not far fetched to understand to some degree what is the intention even if its not 1:1 relation.
>>7700122
>"anon what did you think of that passage"
>I tugged my fedora lower over my head, shading my face in shadow
>from this darkness I glared out at the insipid professor who thought he would draw me into making a social faux pas
>my dark past acts a bulwark to social engagement on any level
>chuckling to myself I drew my harmonica out of my innermost trench coat pocket and played a single note
I was ten or so and we were writing poetry in English class. I wrote a poem about a drunken man throwing up outside a bar and it raised a few red flags. They sent me to the principal, under the guise of "my poem being really good". He asked me if I was writing from experience and I told him it was just something I made up.
The first line was "A drunkard is corrosive" and I told him that I got the word "corrosive" from Warcraft 3 (there's an ability called corrosive breath).
Then he starts opening up and tells me a story about how he got really drunk one time and cheated on his wife and passed out on the side of the road in his own vomit, affirming that alcoholism is indeed a bad thing. He had a little flask that he was taking swigs from, and in hindsight I know now that it was whisky or something similar.
He pats me on the head, telling me "good job" and sends me back to class and I'm left wondering what the fuck just happened.
>>7703667
>be STEMfag
>work as research assistant
>weekly meetings get constantly derailed
>two supervisors argue violently over classical pianists
>we never get any work done
>>7703849
Free verse has been poison to the craft and study of poetry because it's bad but because the barrier to entry is very low.
>>7702078
I just printed out copies of my old HS papers, and got A's on them, even though they got me C's in high school.
>>7704448
Blood Meridian
USA
>>7706152
o fk nvm
Someone got the "male gaze" and the "male gays" mixed up
>>7705849
I disagree, I've tried free verse my entire life and never reached the aims I was looking for. It's harder than it sounds, so I'd say it has the illusion of setting a low standard.
>>7701345
Right? You can find literature in everything; our people are stories in every form.
>>7701345
I like Dark Souls
>>7700715
It's an undergrad class. The fuck do you want?
>>7701251
I don't think the Underground Man would have been prepping for Smash Tournaments, though that's just my reading.
>>7705842
Because Von Braun's philosophy degree was a hinderance rite. -5, don't know why I replied/100
>>7699631
It's a class, not a club. If it's not anger issues or anything, and is just innocent anxiety, then there's not a person who'll be bothered by it or think less of you for it (or at least, who'll be able to say they think less of you without being ostracised themselves).
>>7699847
Mommy buys him Doritos and Cherry Pepsi
>>7699623
Anyone here attend NYU? I got accepted but would have to take out around 20k a year in loans to attend.
>>7700666
At Idaho senpai. I hope you left that god forsaken state
>>7708614
not worth it, go to a public state school friend
don't enslave yourself with debt
>>7699789
ing is gay and I am gay.
>>7708614
what are you gonna study?
>>7708614
In what possible world would that seem like a good idea to you?
>>7708814
depends on wha the's studying desu. if he's doing econ/finance at nyu and get a wall street job 20k/yr in loans can be paid back in 1-3 years.
>>7708841
Considering the board and thread he's posting in, I can't imagine that that's the case.
>>7699770
>old shit
Just tell him that it would be normal that white guys are moreoften on the list,since his people started reading a little bit later.
>sophomore English
>we read a book about the oppression of women, written by a woman
>we read a book about the oppression of Native Americans, written by a Native American
>we read a book about government oppression
>we read another book about the oppression of women, written by a woman
>read another book about government oppression
>we read a book about the oppression of India by the British Empire
>we read The Kite Runner
>none of these books were selected for their actual literary merit, some were incredibly outdated and others were laughably bad in terms of character and prose. These books were chosen only because of the agendas behind them.
And now I'm voting for Trump.
Luckily by my senior year my English teacher actually picked books because of their historical significance, literary beauty, and thematic material, not because of affermative action.
>>7708647
>public state school
I'm going to a public state school and I'm taking 7,500 a year in loans. You're gonna be in debt no matter what, and I feel like you'll get a much better education and opportunities from attending somewhere like NYU.
