/lit/ - Literature

>>10996522
I'll admit it's not the best school -- it has a 29% acceptance rate. But I expected much more.


I'll be studying abroad for both semesters next year at King's college, so I hope that's an improvement.

>>10996522
>American
That's where you fucked up

What an obnoxious post. You're probably not half as smart as you think you are. Try actually engaging with your peers and classes instead of sitting back, basking in your smug superiority. Humble yourself a bit and go in wanting to learn, you will never get anything out of your college experience with your attitude. Don't waste your parent's money.

>>10996522
If you're under stimulated then most likely you fail to realise the true depth of what you're learning, unless you do truly understand in which case you should be able to finish the whole course quickly and not at the normal pace

>>10996522
If you didn't enrol in a Great Books program, and if you aren't doing close readings, then you're fucked OP.

>>10996561
Do you want to hear what one of my classes is like?

For every book we read, we watch the movie adaptation in class. Is the a class about adapting books to the screen? No it’s just a literature class. We don’t even discuss the movies anyways. I suspect that our professor just doesn’t want to teach, so he shows movies instead.
And when we’re not watching movies, each student is assigned to present on a book (there are only around 9 students in the class), in which they usually just summarize the book (despite the fact that we all, supposedly, read it), give a biography of the author, and read a list of themes with some corresponding quotes.

And the professor’s lecture style, I don’t even know how to describe. Usually he goes on tangents that are in no way related to the book. And when he’s talking about the book (usually a good 20-30 minutes out of every hour and a half class period), it really doesn’t seem like a thought provoking analysis.

And we’re reading Nabokov, Woolf, DH, Lawrence, among many others, in this class. And I’ve learned almost nothing. Well, I’ve read the books, which has easily been the best part of the class. At least I’ve got that.

>>10996522
Two things: English majors are for parasitic swine who can’t into maths or philosophy; you fell for the idea that you needed university because your vain, grasping, avaricious and mindless parents pushed you into it. Most people at university, as a global collective, and this number reaches upwards of 60-75% of all tertiary education students on earth are superfluous and exist to fill the coffers and iflate the salaries of faculty and administrators, and to pay for facilities for the 25% of necessary students who do learn skills and are capable of building institutes. If we include only american uni, and if we look at the social sciences and liberal arts, maybe 5% of the students enrolled are necessary, 80% of them are basically just marks who are being fleeced, of that number, about half have no serious interest in education, and of the remaining half of the 4/5 of social science and humanities majors who are interested, nearly all of them do not deserve education as they took no liberties to develop their minds as children, they are amoral and greedy. If we take the STEM group, maybe 30-40% of them belong in STEM and again 20-30% actually contribute to their fields. If you are thinking even most of your teachers are competent, this is laughable, even at a good university, the only reason anyone is impressed by most teachers is because they have a lower iq, are lazy, do not have the skills to keep pace with the material (which is why they ask questions and bother the teacher after hours, slow witted, stupid, poor work ethic, incapable of preparing for a course, bad at studying). We can fairly say half of the STEM professors at Ivy League schools have absolutely no place teaching the courses they do and are feeding off the helplessness of the 70% of students who just will not ever own the knowledge they are being given and have no aptitude for their prospective fields. Finally, its worth taking into consideration that you are locked into a series of courses, which are alleged to prepare you for upper division and graduate level work, but which in actuality exist to vet people, to discourage independent thought, to add prestige to the university, and to bleed you for the first 3 years you attend, where if you had any talent, you would not at all have needed those courses. Fundamentally the university system, especially in the West and in America particularly, exists to take money from the upper middle class, vet disagreeable types who may not adhere to corporate culture, give a sense of tradition and order to crumbling human social institutes and allow for status signaling and do-nothing work for young people the economy cannot accomodate and older intellectuals who are firmly rooted in the old social contracts which politicians and business leaders have set up to benefit loyal minds. If you took anything at your orientation seriously you deserve to be exploited
>>10996545
t. jealous know-nothing faggot pseud from yurope

>>10996561
you can’t skip ahead in most classes anon, they purposefully set up upper division courses so that you can only do the minimum, i don’t know where you got the idea an understimulated person would want to do busy work ahead of time if its still busy work, you’re confusing neurotic compulsive behavior associated with asians and autists with intelligence unchallenged by stupidity. That all of you defend disgusting parasitic institutes like this is telling

>>10996606
>t. jealous
of what? lol

>>10996606
Imagine being this conceited

How do you live with yourself

>>10996613
By laughing at other people and knowing that i don’t use sniveling lisping uptalk to deepen consensus trance or submit to insect authority. I mean just look at you people you’re fucking disgusting

>>10996606
My country's gov recently passed a legislation that cuts the number of students; in most populated universities by half. Just a fun fact

>>10996612
Freedom of speech

>>10996606
terrible prose

what a bore to read

>>10996621
It needs to be cut again, most people do not deserve a seat at university and the faculty in america needs purging, maybe 3/5 of them should be dismissed. People simply assume because there are people that do pay for a service and authorities who allege its utility that those are intelligent actors, very dangerous way of thinking about the world

>>10996628
lol samefagging ant

Who cares if the education is shit? I went to a top 40 school, and it was a joke. Look at how much free time you have. I wish I still had all that free time.

>>10996522
You picked a degree that's day care for people with too much time and money at its best. Get out as fast as possible. Leave English teaching to the middle aged women who eat this shit up. You can critically and intelligently read all the greatest works that mankind's ever written on your own time for free.

>>10996551
>>10996561
Fuck off he doesn't have to waste massive amounts of time and money to be politically indoctrinated in what amounts to a middle school English class.

>>10996606
An asshole yes, but he speaks truth.

What are you into OP? As far as I've experienced the English major is honestly about what courses you take for yourself. Sure, you can absolutely go down the path of paeudo-intellectual criticisms of concepts that obviously dont apply to literature. (See: Hawthorne and the Hyperreal) Or, you can pick up classes that are actually, yknow, in your field of interest. Like, if you dont like classes that mainly deal with literary criticism and theory (which is what it sounds like your dealing with) take some mid 19th century American or British lit classes. I'd say American because then you begin divorcing yourself from the Brits and their industrialism. (which obviously attracts Marxist critics which puts you back where you started)

And dont sleep on the other humanities courses at your institution. They can offer a much needed break from the liberal sounding board that the English major can me (see: history) while also providing really good insight into the literature youre interested in.

Also fuck that brit piece of shit. Philosophy (especially in the states and the uk) are absolutely the most fucked and useless majors you can talk about. The only good that came of the Anglican philosophers was Wittgenstein ~ the only worthwhile lead there I guess.

>>10996606
based

I guarantee all of the metaphors and symbolism go over your head because you lack the pattern-recognition capability to understand Truth

I'm an English major myself, I truly do not know what to do with it. I will however say that it has been probably worth it from the knowledge I've gained not only from the coursework but also on a peer to peer basis. I've been lucky and have taken classes where the professor and students all work together to further understanding, and some of the knowledge and skills I've learned from this are truly life-changing.

I'll probably end up back at a movie theater, but I've enjoyed school quite a bit. If anything, when I graduate I can pretend like I'll get a job writing or something and further delude myself, but at least I'll feel like I'm not a total moron

>>10996522
One of my English professors called the English department the university daycare center.