/lit/ - Literature

developed skills on my own by reading

using school to push me to write (being graded is a heck of a incentive)

Depends if you take it while you're doing all the drugs or after.

bump, also curious
>t. social sciencefag

>>10352638
this, being a NEET or an autodidact is incredibly demotivating and you basically spend the entire day on a screen. school forces you to think or else embarrass yourself

>>10352595
who is the guy in the picture?

>>10352595
most if not all college courses boil down to your teacher being good. if not it'll just be you motivated to finish something because of grades

>>10353205
Thomas Foster Joyce, author of The Culture of Critique

>>10353282
'snot him!

>>10352595
They really helped me further my understanding that the time spent taking these courses would be better spent reading and writing on my own.

>>10353205
Todd Howard (born 1971) is an American video game designer, director, and producer. He currently serves as director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, where he has led the development of the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series.

GamePro magazine named Howard one of the "Top 20 Most Influential People in Gaming" over the last 20 years.[1] He was named one of IGN's "Top Game Creators of All Time".[2]

>>10353205
Stately, plump Dave Wallace

>>10353205
The late seventh coming.

>>10353402
toddposting outside of /v/. Impressive.

>>10353402
>>10353454
>>10353456
kys

its louis theroux isnt it??

>>10353205
Kevin mcdonald

>>10352595
I went to a second or third tier university and I hate to admit it, but formal training increased my reading and writing skills more than I ever thought possible. There's only so much writing ability most people can get through osmosis. Actually submitting papers and having them torn to shreds for grammar and structure by PhDs is the most helpful thing there is. Of course, I had a few dud professors, but 4/5 were amazing

>>10352638
I think a big thing is reading each others stuff in class

>>10353755
We're talking about studying Literature not silly Creative Writing scams

Need advice, engineering degree, fresher
What can I do to better enjoy literature?

>>10353755
It's always bad. I put effort and time into my writing, the others just rehash what they've heard elsewhere.
me: writes a 2 page essay full of allegory, metaphor, and exquisitely refined narration and make the central themes as if they we're fruits of good and evil, easy to reach but difficult to accept as truth
them: hamlet is sad... uhmm.. ophelia is a symbol of... beauty.. like.. uhh..

I'm a CS major and basically only look forward to breaks and graduation so I can finally read

I'm miserable

>>10354248
Is it really that hard?

>>10354260
It's not about difficulty it's that I wish I could fucking read my backlog and most STEM kids are spergs. Also I have zero desire to get a job with this degree

>>10353995
Talk with your teacher

this is weird guys I feel funny like a tingly?

>>10354248
Yeah, you should major in English instead, so you can work a retail job at a used bookstore for 8 years.

t. english major

>>10352595
>Do you think that college courses in literature really helped you further your understanding of literature, or your writing skills (fiction)?
Yes. Being in the same room as a published author for two hours a day, twice a week, gives you such a large volume of advice that, even if 60% of it doesn't help, the 40% that's useful will be a huge boon to your writing.

Before I took my first CW class, I had no idea what the fuck to do with setting, except for some vague advice like "macrocosm/microcosm" and "setting is a character." After 3 weeks, we went through a chapter in the textbook about setting, and I was starting to develop some ideas, but still felt somewhat lost. During week 4, I turned in a short story, and got a ton of great, personalized advice.
>Anon, I like the motif of sounds shoes make on the floor, but it seems haphazard; try associating sharper sounds with more authoritative characters.
>What *kind* of university is this? Yale, or Malcom X Community College? Is your perfection-obsessed main character typical, or atypical?
>What's on the walls? Are there trophy cases? Bulletin boards? Chipped paint and mold? This ties back to my note from earlier?

Having deadlines is also a huge help, because it forces you to sit down and write. And the feedback I got from our class groups was nice, if a bit too positive. (I'd much rather people tore my stuff to pieces.)

>>10354248
>>10354267
I feel you brother. A liberal arts minor is easing the suffering, but once I leave school I'm pretty sure I'll hate life.

>>10354819
Sounds comfy.

>>10354819
can i get the same job on a CS degree

>>10354822
I wish I had time to do that

i like the parts of my field that are academia and theoretically focused. I like my math classes but man do I not want a job in industry and don't really feel the grad school stuff

>>10354843
>I like my math classes but man do I not want a job in industry and don't really feel the grad school stuff
same here but I'm an industrial engineering major

>>10352595
Yes it helps much more than doing it on your own for the reasons anons have pointed out itt. Becoming a better reader and writer is pretty important professionally and it's the main focus in literature classes. Beware though, you may have to read books written by women or black authors, and you might have to read or apply theory. This didn't bother me much. I can't say anything about jobs or money, but that's not what you asked about anyways.

t. english lit major

>>10354843
I'm 100% with you. To be honest, I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping I can get a novel published before I graduate. After that, I know all I'll have time for is short stories. It's pretty easy to bang out 1-5k words on any given Sunday afternoon.

My best advice right now would be to get a job at a big company with a lot of bloat, and write on company time (while also meeting your deadlines, of course). That's what I've been doing with my internships, and it's working out semi-well.

>>10352595
As other anons said, grading will change the way you write (hopefully for the better, maybe it puts me closer to the intelligibility or tradition of writing). For me, simply being forced to research secondary literature opened up my eyes to ways of reading. I would barely even be able to understand sequences of events before, now I'm analysing for motifs, etc.

>>10354267
>tfw quit STEM and picked up a trade
>love my job, good money and an infinite amount of work available
>get 6 (six) free hours in the afternoon to pursue my interests
life is good