Home » Archives » September 2006 » Lit woes

[Previous entry: "Neat"] [Next entry: "Goblins"]

09/06/2006: "Lit woes"

Song of the Day: BT - All That Makes Us Human Continues

One of the classes that I'm taking this semester, Law, Literature, and Feminism, is an obvious attempt on my part to get some credit hours cleared out of the way without actually reading any more black letter law. Instead, I'm reading literature, or more specifically, classic American literature (and court opinions, of course, you can't escape those). I have rediscovered two things I already knew:

1. I hate American lit.

2. I hate English classes.

My beef with American lit became obvious to me during my junior year of high school, when the American classics were the focus of that year's English class. Salinger, Hawthorne, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, it was all so dry and monotonous (I can hear Shannon choking and gasping here). I love Brit lit with an undying passion, as well as Frenchman Alexandre Dumas' works, and it seems to me that American authors shouldn't have been so eager to separate themselves from their ancestors.

My hatred for English classes can pretty much be summed up in a short phrase: The Eyes of Dr. TJ Eckleburg. The graduate level English class I took during undergrad further cemented my annoyance of the type of analysis that occurs in the English classroom. The professor encouraged so much BS that I found it impossible to believe that people actually get entire degrees out of it and consider themselves accomplished and learned. To test my theory, I spouted off some totally out-there "analysis" that I made up on the fly one day, and the professor congratulated me on my impressive thoughts.

I think all my classes from here on out should involve autopsies. That'd keep me from complaining.

Replies: 7 Comments

Maybe you could bring in the bludgeoned corpses of your exes and offer them up for autopsy. Give prizes for anyone who can identify the exact object used to bring about their untimely demises.

j!!, Thursday, September 7th

There is nothing wrong with English class. Your beef is with the teacher. You leave English class alone!

Furthermore, I also hate the "dead white guy" routine of the normal curriculum canon. American Lit encompasses anything written in America. Not just weird guys that isolate themselves in cabins and write about fucking trees and shit.

However I do like The Great Gatsby.

Try reading The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. It's American Lit, too, and you'll certainly get a lot more out of it than Walden.

P.S. Forgive the Walden bashing. I fucking hate the book.

Jeff, Friday, September 8th

*GASP* *DRAMATICALLY FAINTS*

I have to say that as a person holding an English degree, I feel very well educated. Don't bash English, bash the law professor that assigned you the reading. :-)

Ellison is a good writer to read... I'm also a huge fan of Cheever.

Shannon, Friday, September 8th

*GASP* *DRAMATICALLY FAINTS*

I have to say that as a person holding an English degree, I feel very well educated. Don't bash English, bash the law professor that assigned you the reading. :-)

Ellison is a good writer to read... I'm also a huge fan of Cheever.

Shannon, Friday, September 8th

Jeff - good point, I'm trying to think of a single minority and/or female author we read when the topic was specifically American Lit and can't come up with one.

And besides, you want to be a high school English teacher...my English classes were useful until college. So you're exempt from my scorn. : )

Shannon - You're only well-educated because of the polisci degree, not the English one. ;) I'd also like to point out I'm not well-educated at all, I just guess correctly a good portion of the time. :D

Brooke, Saturday, September 9th

An interesting thing happens when you go to college English courses, and, as I've taken a bunch for my degree, it's very relevant. What happens is that, through the context of multiculturalist texts and discussions, you are made to feel guilty for the sole reason of being white.

You talk about how Whitey ruined everything, and you can't help but feel that, well, it's partially your fault because you're also white.

And if you're not white, then, you get the experience of looking down your nose and all the crackers in your class.

Jeff, Tuesday, September 12th

They do that in history classes too. And anthropology. And sociology. And just about every other humanities/social science class I've ever taken. Unfortunately I have yet to feel guilty for something I didn't personally do. :D

j!!, Tuesday, September 12th