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/lit/ - Literature

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2956775 No.2956775 [Reply] [Original]

>that feel when you earned a B.A. in English and graduated magna cum laude.

>That feel when you never read a single book assigned by your school. Not a single. fucking. one. You simply SparkNoted them all.

>That feel when you've spent your time reading Science Fiction/Fantasy classics and graphic novels.

>That feel when you're now in a graduate program, studying literature.

>That feel when you plan to reread some of your favorites this semester: Dune, LotR, Foundations Trilogy, Frankenstein, Alice in Wonderland, Lovecraft, Philip K Dick, and finally get around to reading the EarthSea series.

>That feel when you plan to continue sparknoting all the boring shit they assign.

>Gulliver's Travels? Tom Jones? Middlemarch? Seriously? No.

>That feel when you wonder if you will eventually be exposed as a fraud or if you can be the "cool" professor that teaches popular novels. I mean, they already offer courses in Tolkien at a lot of schools.

>That feel when you have a constant feeling of "I'm a spy and not really one of you" when discussing literature with fellow grad students.

>> No.2956781

>That feel when you get NOJOBPWND.

>> No.2956791
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2956791

>>2956786

She manages to be scary and cute in The Hunger Games, too.

>> No.2956785

i love earthsea so much :) :) mainly just the first book. it is so great.

>> No.2956786

So, who's the girl?

She manages to look demonic and cute all at once. It's not a look most can pull off.

>> No.2956788
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2956788

We all know majoring in English lit is a joke.

But you are so full of shit OP

>> No.2956800
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2956800

>>2956788

No I'm not.

I'm in graduate school for literature right now, and I didn't read a single fucking book assigned in my undergraduate degree. Not one. Not a single one.

Of course, my shit school didn't assign very many.

Deerslayer, Moby Dick, McTeague, The Sound and the Fury, The Awakening, Beloved, The Bluest Eye, etc, etc. it all seemed boring as shit and I just sparknoted them all.

Now I'm in graduate school and the stuff is still boring.

I read the poetry I'm assigned and like it, but I never, never read the novels assigned.

>> No.2956807

>>2956800
Great. So you paid a fuckton of money for a liberal arts degree at university where you essentially wasted all the resources you had. If "that feel" isn't one of regret or something... fuck you. I don't understand your point, other than maybe that you're spoiled and childish.

>> No.2956814

So... you don't enjoy literature, yet you are spending your life studying literature... hmm.... OP you sure are a winner.

>> No.2956816

Joke's on us right OP?

>> No.2956826
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2956826

>>2956807

I don't really feel regretful at all. I'm working toward a Ph.D. so I can teach.

See, I had a teacher who hated, HATED, HATED white men. She was always ranting about how we're not reading "dead white males" anymore and the canon won't be fixed to them, and she had us read tons of stuff by Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison, etc.

Anyway, that kind of stuff got me thinking that if the old canon is dead and being done away with, who says we have to replace it with African American, Chicano writers, women writers, etc? Why not Science Fiction and Fantasy?

I mean, this lady plainly said she hated Dickens, etc, and wasn't teaching that old, traditional canon anymore. That was "all thrown out in the 20th century."

So, why replace it with politically correct stuff?

So, I never bothered to read any of it and continued studying Fantasy/Science Fiction/Graphic Novels, etc, on my own, and haven't felt bad about it.

>> No.2956825
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2956825

>>2956800
I'm calling bullshit, OP. Where are you going for your imaginary graduate degree?

>> No.2956828

Seriously OP, what the fuck. A degree in literature is completely useless unless you actually enjoy literature.

>inb4 the shit you're reading is lit.

>> No.2956829

>>2956814

>you don't enjoy literature

What??

Did you even read my post?

>> No.2956834

>>2956800

Are you trying to point out how easy it is to work around the system?

It's something I noticed too. Actually reading a piece of work is sometimes unnecessary. You can read up on everything because there are so, so many already established arguments out there made by others that you can simply pick up on. It often felt like my teachers wanted me to regurgitate points made by others mostly to prove I could write cohesive and structured essays. My own actual understanding was suggested to be secondary.

I only did it on a few occasions when I had too little time because I mostly enjoyed the subject-matter.

>> No.2956837

>>2956826
>See, I had a teacher who hated, HATED, HATED white men.

Colleges aren't liberal indoctrination centers they said..

>> No.2956843

OP can't even invent a name for his pretend school.

sofullofshit.jpg

>> No.2956842

>>2956826
God if I hear one more fucking racist feminist bitch complain about books because they were written by "dead white guys" ADSDAFSFADSD

>> No.2956851

>>2956837

The canon of white men is thrown out and replaced with minority and women authors, and the white males respond by pretending to read them but really studying science fiction and fantasy.

It kind of doesn't even make since, in a way, because the old white male canon is replaced by more white males. It's like the politically correctness gave the white males and excuse to switch entirely to reading 20th century white males

>> No.2956856

>>2956851
>and the white males respond by pretending to read them but really studying science fiction and fantasy
No, OP's presumably invented persona does that. Nobody actually does that.

>> No.2956857
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2956857

>>2956843

Gee, you're right. I should post on 4chan what school I graduated magna cum laude from, so some random /lit/tard can email the English faculty or something. Why don't I say my first and last name and what grad program I'm enrolled in too?

>> No.2956862

How was going to a shitty state school?

>> No.2956863

>>2956857
thatd be great thx

>> No.2956870

>>2956862
He didn't even get into a state school. He's attending MBU -- Mom's Basement University.

>> No.2956866

>>2956856

I did it.

I read Science Fiction / Fantasy, etc.
I read *about* the "literary" classics.

I know it hurts you people to know this, but you can't tell in a conversation who has read the book and who has read the SparkNotes of the book.

>> No.2956873

i read science fiction fantasy and the classics

god dammit books rock, read books everybody

>>2956866
thats annoying and terrible and you shouldn't do it

>> No.2956875

I believe OP, I've been there. But after about a year of doing nothing at all while nobody noticed it I got too disillusioned and quit.

>> No.2956881

>>2956826
>rejected reading assigned books because they were 'politically correct' and weren't by dead white men
>>2956800
>didn't read Moby Dick, Deerslayer, Sound and the Fury, McTeague

>> No.2956884

To be fair to OP, I graduated an Ivy League undergrad cum laude in the humanities having done VERY little of the assigned work.

>> No.2956890
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2956890

>>2956870

You really think this is the most unbelievable story in the world? Do you really think this is THAT difficult of a "con" (of sorts) for someone to pull off?

I read literature. I read lots of literature. It's just science fiction / fantasy. I write. I consider myself a person who is devoted to studying narrative storytelling and literature.

I just find the "literary" books assigned to be a complete boring waste of time, so I sparknote them instead of actually reading them, and bullshit my way through essays.

it's really not that difficult of a thing to do for someone of any mild intelligence.

>> No.2956893

>>2956881

Those were different teachers, obviously.

>> No.2956894

>>2956884
Dem BS-ing skills come in handy.

I'm not insulting anon, I'm serious. I got through most of my humanities courses by BS-ing. It wasn't that I found the material unimportant - it was just that I didn't have enough to say in response to it, hence the BS.

>> No.2956909

>>2956857

ok, wait a minnit...

are you telling us that you graduated magna cum laude and that you are attending the same school for your grad degree that you went to for your BA?

only really fucking stupid people go to the same school for post-grad work that they went to for their bachelors! anyone with a brain would be making a step up.

>> No.2956905

>>2956894

You are correct. You have to be able to BS some papers a few times a semester. But just as important, you have to be able to game the system by always choosing classes with high median grades. The grade inflation at the Ivies these days (other than Princeton) is so rampant it's pretty darn easy to get Latin honors.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the kids who get into these schools were masters of bullshit in high school. Concentrate in literature, find the professors who still like Derrida, and boom, you're making 6-figs on Wall Street.

>> No.2956907

well literature is a mickey mouse degree

>> No.2956919

>>2956884
We all care very much.

>> No.2956913

>>2956884
and you're only really harming yourself by doing so

>> No.2956915
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2956915

The reason I posted this, by the way, was to see the response I'd get. See, sometimes I think about telling other students but... no, I think they would respond in an appalled sort of way and probably "out me" to the faculty.

The kind of people who sit around reading Kurt Vonnegut and mention Ulysses every chance they can (i.e. most of the people on /lit/)... those people aren't to be trusted...

I partly think those people don't even like literature and only read what they do to feel superior and/or to impress people.

I at least read what I freaking like to read because I like it.

>> No.2956916

>>2956857
Right, because they would accept some idiot's word for it who walked in off the internet.

Nope. Full of shit. OP's a faggot whose got an axe to grind against the literate.

>> No.2956922

>>2956909

what? no, they're different schools.

>> No.2956923

>I partly think those people don't even like literature and only read what they do to feel superior and/or to impress people.

this is pretty much true in 90% of cases

>> No.2956924

So, there are two possibilities here.

1. You're a fucking idiot.
or
2. You're lying.

Good job, I guess. Or whatever response you were looking for when you made this thread.

>> No.2956930

>>2956915
>I partly think those people don't even like literature and only read what they do to feel superior and/or to impress people.

So you are a troll, had me worried for a little while.

>> No.2956931

>>2956919

Hey man, just corroborating the possibility of the story's truth. Especially if he went to some shitty college.

>> No.2956932

>>2956915
>The kind of people who sit around reading Kurt Vonnegut
Holy Christ, are you using KURT VONNEGUT as an example of 'difficult' literature people only pretend to like?

Confirmed for knowing nothing about either serious literature OR sci-fi.

>> No.2956934

>>2956916

>the literate

Who's to say that someone who has read Faulkner, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Nabokov, Morrison, etc, is any more "literate" than someone who has read Tolkien, Lovecraft, LeGuin, Wells, Asimov, etc?

>> No.2956938

>>2956915
Well revealing what you're doing goes against the rules of the game. It's a huge social sin. So of course they'd be outraged, it's taboo to actually mention it, it just reminds them of the truth. Plus going against the conventional wisdom in general is unwise. You don't understand much about this culture if you don't understand that...

>> No.2956941

Why are you posting images of whored-up kids?

>> No.2956943

>>2956775
nigga, you never heard of "publish or perish?" if you don't have at least 5 articles published in respectable journals by the end of your first year you can pretty much say goodbye to any chance at working after you graduate. you're competing with an oversaturated market of people who actually know what they're talking about

>> No.2956948
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2956948

>>2956941

Is that a subtle, passive aggressive way of asking for more?

>> No.2956952

>>2956941
He probably got banned from /tv/.

>> No.2956957

>>2956934
I guess it's absolutley impossible to read and enjoy authors from both sets.

>> No.2956958
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2956958

>>2956943

Nah, the tiny liberal arts school I got my B.A. at has asked me to come back and teach there, since I'll be the first English grad to get a Ph.D (oh, how tragic that the first will be a fraud). They already have a girl who has her masters teaching there.

In any case, the "publish or perish" thing is only for research schools. I don't want to teach at a research school.

>> No.2956955

>>2956943

This. You're doomed. Post-graduate literature studies are where people always get caught out - largely because all the sparknoting leaves a certain trail across the mind, like a slug in the kitchen.

You're in for a surprise, unless you're at some bullshit pretend college.

>> No.2956963

>>2956952

Not sure which is more repulsive, OP's general attention-whore attitude or his boner for prostitots.

>> No.2956968

>>2956943
>if you don't have at least 5 articles published in respectable journals by the end of your first year
Wut. First year of a Masters? I'm not familiar with the American system, but either you're making that up or you guys have some shitty, shitty 'respectable journals'.

But yeah, your general point that OP would have no chance of getting an academic job (or even a PhD in the first place) is right. Even if OP did a thesis on sci-fi (which could work), there'd need to be in-depth awareness of capital-L Literature. And the PhD job market is waaaaay oversubscribed even if you only count the people from top universities.

>> No.2956973

PUBLISH OR PERISH

It's a brutal market out there. Always has been, but now it's worse. Even the Yale kids are ending up teaching at awful colleges these days. I bet most graduate students end up unemployed. So you should get reading, man.

>> No.2956974

>>2956856

I did it - I read tonnes of cowboy novels and sci-fi while I was studying my BA (I read the set texts as well, obviously, but a lot of them I hated).

For my PhD, I had to work a lot harder, but I still scarfed down shitty genre literature like a whale during the vacations.

>> No.2956979

>>2956857

What is Magna Cum Laude, anyway? Is that like a 2:1 at a proper university? (Summa cum Laude is highest, or am I wrong?)

You wouldn't even get onto a PhD programme at a good british university with a 2:1

>> No.2956980

>>2956974
>I read the set texts as well, obviously
...and that makes all the difference, yo. OP is claiming not to have done that part.

>> No.2956981

>>2956968

You guys have no idea how graduate school works for literature.

You can get that level of knowledge with summaries and general histories of literature, etc. It's really not that difficult.

Yea, you'll have to study the books on your comprehensive reading exam but other than that, you can just bullshit your way through about the other stuff.

>> No.2956984

>>2956980

I know, I'm just saying that not everyone who does a PhD in literature does it because they love Last of the Mohicans and James Joyce.

>> No.2956987

For what it's worth, I'm on track for a Masters in one of the better literature programs in the US and OP's story doesn't seem very implausible to me. The thing that's gonna fuck him is what >>2956943 said. Getting a job in this field is a real fucking slog even if you've been networking and publishing the whole time. Frankly, guys like OP usually wash out after their first year. And I have met guys like him. Usually straight out of undergrad, haven't really done anything else with their lives, went to grad school for lack of anything better to do thinking it would put off adulthood for another two-to-three years.

>> No.2956993

>>2956984
Is Last of the Mohicans actually seen as good literature? I kind of had the impression it was the pulp fiction of its day.

(which isn't to say reading pulp doesn't have value)

>> No.2956998

>>2956968
anon is presumably talking about first year in a tenure track professorship, but he is still wrong. typically you publish at least an article or two as a graduate student, and then you're expected to publish a book (which is just a string of related articles revised and edited with about half unpublished material) before your tenure review. that's usually about six years.

>> No.2956996

>>2956958
>In any case, the "publish or perish" thing is only for research schools. I don't want to teach at a research school.

holy shit how shitty is the school you go to that you think this is true

>> No.2957000

>>2956993

Dunno man, just the first american book that came into my mind.

It's not considered anything in Europe, far as I know. There's a movie with that Irish dude in it, is all I can say for sures.

>> No.2957002

The job prospects for English Ph.D's is vastly underrated. Usually the people who talk about the "market being so saturated" are people who don't know what they're talking about.

My school has a 60 something percent tenure track placement record.

And for people who just want to be adjuncts or whatever, the placement is even higher.

>> No.2957003

>>2956987
>Usually straight out of undergrad, haven't really done anything else with their lives, went to grad school for lack of anything better to do thinking it would put off adulthood for another two-to-three years
Hey, I resemble that remark....

Except for the 'straight out of undergrad' part. I've been dicking around for waaaaay longer than that. So many regrets piled up I don't know what to do with them.

>> No.2957010

>>2956998

As a Post-graduate I was expected to publish each chapter of my phd in peer-reviewed journals - it boosts the research profile of the department and gives outside input into your work. It also provides a good opportunity for networking and you get cushy little jobs like reviewing in the same journal, which boosts your own publication CV a little and gives you a chance to kiss arse, or to represent yourself as a plucky little scrapper who respects no reputation.

>> No.2957016

>>2957000
>There's a movie with that Irish dude in it
For some reason I am now imagining James Joyce in that role. Same story, except whenever shit gets real he hides behind a tree and shouts 'deal with him, Hemingway!'

>> No.2957012

>>2956993
What was Dickens' work in his day, though? Pulp can become canonized simply by sticking around long enough sometimes.

>> No.2957013

>>2956996
thing is, anybody can publish if they write on trendy topics, don't hold themselves to the highest standard, and are willing to be published in journals nobody reads, and even at most state schools that's enough to meet the publication requirement for tenure.

>> No.2957017
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2957017

>>2956996

None of the professors at the school I got my bachelors at published anything.

I already said, they have a former student with her masters teaching there and I'll be the first one to get a Ph.D. from the program and they've said again and again I should come back and teach there.

I don't particularly want to teach there, though, and will probably go elsewhere. I'm really not worried about it. At all.

I think the elitists think there will be some sort of karmic justice after I graduate that will leave me unemployed, in a gutter for not reading Middlemarch.

>> No.2957027

>>2957017
so its elitist for people to want you to not be lazy and academically dishonest?

>> No.2957030

>>2957010
in my top-tier program, this not the norm. then again, our placement hasn't been so hot lately.

>> No.2957038

>>2957017
Having to read the Sparknotes of what these books is about is more boring if less time consuming than reading them.

Congratulations.

>> No.2957040

>>2957030
I'm doing a PhD at a top British university and there's been nothing like a requirement to publish- but then our programmes are much shorter than in the States. Wish there had been as it would have made me get off my ass and do shit.

>> No.2957041

>>2957030

It may have been because I was receiving a bursary - the department wanted some research dough back asap. I guess they also wanted to make sure I wasn't pissing their £15,000 a year up the wall.

I largely was

>> No.2957044

>>2957010
this is my experience in my program. >>2956943
is totally crazy, 5 is way too many, but during the pre-seminar classes they made it pretty clear to us that we should be publishing roughly one article every semester. maybe he's an MFA student, I think they've got to publish that much (for obvious reasons)

>> No.2957052

You guys are vastly underestimating the amount of lazy, unpublished adjunct professors teaching at shitty community colleges out there.

They still make around $40,000 a year.

Not everyone has to be some outgoing academic aspiring for a tenure track position at a top tier research university.

>> No.2957055

>>2956800
I skipped a lot of novels assigned in my school, not all, but many to do other shit.

I sorely regret it, I have a bachelors and I feel like it's fake. Plus I could have learned something from those books.

Making up for it now by reading avidly.

>> No.2957065

>>2957040
What uni are you at, if you don't mind me asking? I'm due to start my PhD in three weeks and they've already told me they expect me to give a talk in October and a postgraduate lecture in Feb/March. I am so unbelievably worried.

I'm at KCL.

>> No.2957077

>>2957052
No they don't.

My dad is one of those but full time and only makes 50K. When he and my mom were adjuncts they barely made 18K each

>> No.2957079

>>2957041
Oh shit, I'm getting a bursary too, I'll probably have to publish my whole thesis too. Even more stressed than before.

I'm
>>2957065, by the way.

>> No.2957084

>>2957041
i receive a very reasonable stipend and so do all of my colleagues. if anything, professors are hesitant to have people publish. i think they're a bit stodgy about it, frankly -- in the current employment environment, it seems like one ought to professionalize as a graduate student.

however, i think this likely boils down to an america-britain difference more than anything.

>> No.2957091

>>2957052
adjuncts are really fucked, you have no clue what you're on about.

>> No.2957098

>>2957065
Oxford. Don't worry, that means they're doing their job. I haven't had to do anything at all and, together with my existing talent for procrastination, the results haven't been good.

>> No.2957107

>>2957079
>I'll probably have to publish my whole thesis too
If you do it'll be on the conditions of the bursary. But what's the worst that could happen? It's not like they can imprison you if you don't.

I hope.

>> No.2957114
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2957114

I think the reason people get upset at someone like you, OP, is because of the general lack of character you display, your apparent pride in it and ultimately your laziness. I think you'd be more at home in the hard sciences, where they value developing shortcuts.

It seems to me that while you have a genuine interest in *your* taste in literature, your horizons are depressingly narrow. If you visit our fellow art appreciators in /mu/ and /tv/, the general consensus isn't concerned with what you have taste in (all taste is subjective, etc), but rather that you're willing to expand those tastes, take risks and in a sense, subject yourself to what may at first be a difficult experience, to ultimately find new artistic plateaus - ie the acquired taste. Your inability, or unwillingness to do this with literature that has justifiably been placed in high regard, not just by /lit/, but by decades and sometimes centuries of literary review, demonstrates kind of a childishness. Your whole get-up of making it sound like you're getting away with something, and being an infiltrator in the system, makes it sound like you take pride in being artistically immature.

cont'd

>> No.2957121
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2957121

>>2957107
sometimes i already feel i am in scholar's prison.

>> No.2957122

>>2957119
The last reason someone might take offense to your statement is that it just sounds lazy. How much harder is it to read a book than to SparkNote it? Yeah, there are time considerations, but it certainly doesn't take me much time to go through your average 300-400 page book. For a lit major, I'd assume even less time. When you come onto /lit/ and advertise that you made magna cum laude for basically doing nothing, well, I don't see how you can't understand that you sound like an ass. It's like a bunch of guys sitting around a table talking about how they earned their money by the blood, sweat and tears of their labor, and a guy strolls into the room and announces he made his fortune by hitting the lottery. It arrogance - the worst kind really. Arrogance from someone who has no right to even be cocky, because he hasn't worked for anything at all.

fin.

>> No.2957119

>>2957114
Furthermore, it has to do with honesty and character. As I understand it, your justification for remorselessly SparkNote'ing your way through literature, is that you fundamentally disagree with the notion that any of these books hold their historically appraised artistic value. While we could debate this point forever, let's say we give you full leverage and go with your train of thought. If you truly believe that the books assigned as part of your literature degree hold little value, or at least less value than your books, then why take part in a degree program in which you must therefore necessarily believe is artistically bankrupt? Wouldn't a person of character simply back out of this contradiction immediately? To do otherwise seems dishonest to yourself and dishonest to your teachers.

>> No.2957123

>>2957114

>/tv/
>art appreciators

Really? Every single time i go over to discuss film all they're talking about is the latest HBO drama series or Nolan.

>> No.2957126

>>2957114
>you have a genuine interest in *your* taste in literature
That's also doubtful. OP, despite apparently being into sci-fi, considers Kurt Vonnegut a 'literary' author who people pretend to like. As opposed to, y'know, being an important, influential, and very readable author of sci-fi.

>> No.2957131

>>2957122
dude, op's just a troll, we already quit talking about him. drop your trip and get with the program.

>> No.2957129

>>2957098
Don't you have to meet your supervisor regularly to show your progress? I am supposed to see mine on the 24th and I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to have done anything yet. I've tried, but my efforts are feeble. Plus I've cleverly signed up to do an advanced course in my third language so I'm trying to revise that.

Whoever said academia was a good idea?!

>> No.2957133

>>2957122
>>2957119
>>2957114

You don't expect me to read all that do you? A summarized version with main points plz. thx.

>> No.2957134

>>2957084

The main difference may be that UK universities receive funding from the state based on complicated gutomantic rituals based on the amount of research published by a department - a bright post-grad with a committed attitude to publication can be a very useful resource to wring out mercilessly for three-four years. And they cost nothing compared to an actual staff member.

Personally I liked it - having a list of publications in your CV is impressive, even if you're not looking for an academic position - people outside academia think you're John fucking Grisham or something because you've got a paper published in a book.

>> No.2957139

>>2957107
They could get me for fraud, I am receiving £60,000 from these people. Or they could withdraw my qualification.

>All that work and I'd end up with an MPhil...

>> No.2957142

>>2957134
i took a peek at the king's college site. if i'm understanding this correctly, there is no teaching requirement? we have two years without teaching and otherwise we teach a class every semester.

>> No.2957148

>>2957129
Depends ENTIRELY on how assed the supervisor and supervisee are about that. In my case, both of us were significantly less than half-assed.

In theory, there are assessment mechanisms to get round this dependence on a two-person relationship. From the sound of it, yours might be effective. But in my case, even when they belatedly came into effect, it was pretty clear that the university was motivated NOT to kick me out. You have to remember that, especially if you've got a scholarship, it looks really bad for them if you drop out.

You can bear that in mind as a reassuring thought, mind you, but don't go relying on it. Even if you can coast through until the very end... you'll still be hitting the end, and trouble will happen. I'm going to be demonstrating that soon enough.

>> No.2957152

>>2957119
>If you truly believe that the books assigned as part of your literature degree hold little value, or at least less value than your books, then why take part in a degree program in which you must therefore necessarily believe is artistically bankrupt?

the real issue here isn't that he's "wrong" to believe that his science fiction books have more artistic merit or are more interesting than the canonical writers he despises, it's that he doesn't posess the intellectual integrity to make this judgement firsthand. it's possible to have his tastes and still legitimately literate-- but the fact he dismisses these works out of hand, based on their providence or wikipedia summaries or whatever, betrays a real shallow understanding of the values of literature in general. I can't imagine he truly appreciates the writing he does claim to enjoy, because unless his reading was incredibly shallow he would see the same virtues across the boundaries of genre. what attracts you, OP, to speculative fiction? is it really just the magic and the spaceships?

>> No.2957155
File: 52 KB, 940x439, aa.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2957155

>>2957122
>>2957119
>>2957114

Some professors are well read in African American literature, others in American, others in 20th Century British or Poetry or Literary Theory. Why not Science Fiction and Fantasy?

Courses are being taught on Graphic Novels, Lord of the Rings, etc, nowadays.

I think reading about the classic books of the past, knowing the history of literature, and generally what the books were about is enough. And I'll continue reading Science Fiction / Fantasy. And poetry, I said earlier that I read all the poetry assigned. There isn't enough time to read both and most of the time they're just assigning boring politically correct afro american shit, anyway.

Okay, I'm bored with this thread. bye.

>> No.2957157

>>2957139
>They could get me for fraud
I strongly doubt failing to get a PhD could constitute fraud. I think the funding body is far more likely to come down hard on the university for failing to assess you properly than on you.

Again, I hope.

>> No.2957161

>>2957152

>what attracts you, OP, to speculative fiction? is it really just the magic and the spaceships?

lit's understanding of speculative fiction.

>> No.2957164

>>2957155
Are you claiming to be well-read in science fiction? Again: Kurt Vonnegut. Also, you cited Gulliver's Travels among the 'boring shit' you wouldn't read. So... I'm pretty sure you're not well-read in anything.

>> No.2957168

I bet OP thinks Candide is boring too. Pffft.

>> No.2957174
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2957174

>>2957161

No, it's not just the magic and spaceships. There's the super heroes and time travel, too.

>> No.2957176

>>2957157

I walked away from my history PhD, and didn't actually tell my supervisor, largely because I knew they'd do anything to talk me into staying with the programme so their scholarship money didn't go down the pan.

There were no fraud charges, as far as I know, but the Dean did apparently consider suing me for the last year's funding because I literally did nothing and submitted nothing, published nothing.

I basically went a bit mental and sat in my study paralysed for a year. My supervisor found out I'd left for sure when he bumped into me on the street while I was on my way to work - I felt really bad about letting him down tbh.

>> No.2957183

It's a good story, OP, so let's say it's true. What, exactly, does success look like in your eyes? Because like a lot of other people have said in this thread, you're getting yourself into a hole.

Make no mistake, it sounds like it's a nice hole, if you want a feeling of smug superiority over your peers, but how does this get you closer to what you want?

Unless what you want is to get into the rat race of tenure track positions at schools, in which case, it sounds like you've got what you need to succeed there too.

In short: Congratulations, I guess? You earned a minor, if meaningful scholastic achievement without putting in the work most people did.

P.S. I'm reading The Dispossessed now, and only slogged through the first 20 pages. Should I keep going? I like Mieville, who seems to like LeGuin, so that's something that is important, I think.

>> No.2957184

>>2957161
no, no, sorry if I wasn't clear. what I was trying to express is that good speculative fiction, the type OP presumably values in his studies, possesses the same virtues as good literary fiction. making the distinction displays a shallowness of thought. if what OP liked about spec-fic were those virtues, he wouldn't feel the need to reject "literary" fiction wholesale because he would be able to see those same virtues at work.

so if it's not that deep, what's left? magic and spaceships.

>> No.2957186

>>2957161
/lit/ mostly read a lot of science fiction when they were kids and younger teenagers - like, 10, 11, 12, up through maybe 15 or 16 - and then moved away from it. so their understanding and knowledge of it, besides the people here who post here who are serious about it, is mostly on that level, of only knowing about really popular, adolescent things.

>> No.2957195

>>2957176
Ha, the paralysis sounds a lot like me. History too, in fact. I can still knock some stuff together to submit, though- what's really lacking is the research, because I never really had much idea of what I was doing. I've spend VERY little time in archives.

>> No.2957207

>>2957155
like you have anywhere else to be. With your weird cornucopia of little girl pictures. If you're for real, you're a fuckhead. If you're lying, you're a fuckhead. That's what us well-read people call a lose-lose, compadre

>> No.2957205
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2957205

>>2957183

I want to teach. And if the "old canon" is being thrown out and replaced with Their Eyes Were Watching God and Toni Morrison, why not teach LeGuin, Philip K Dick, etc? If literature is undergoing a shift, why only teach politically correct "literary" literature?

Anyway, I see courses being taught on Tolkien and graphic novels, etc, nowadays and want to teach those.

>> No.2957206

>>2957195

>because I never really had much idea of what I was doing. I've spend VERY little time in archives.

Probably because the buggers never actually tell you how to do it properly - most supervisors seem to assume that because they're as happy as a pig in shit when they're in the stacks of some forgotten trove, everyone else is and has a supernatural affinity for archival research.

I spent most of my research visits banging this bird I met who lived in Kew, while occasionally going to the PRO and sitting at a desk thinking "what the fuck do I do now?"

>> No.2957209

>>2957148
I have no intention of coasting through til the end or anything, but giving a talk three weeks in seems a little intense. I know a guy in the year above me and he's spoken at conferences and been published in this year (granted, he is thirty and I'm only 23) which makes me think they want a very high output.

As you can probably guess from the time, I'm not the world's most conventional and strait-laced student.

>> No.2957214

>>2957205
>saying you don't want to teach 'politically correct' literature
>citing Ursula Le Guin
So... you ever read ANYTHING you talk about, anon? Or even use wikipedia?

>> No.2957225

>>2957214

no, I'm just a guy from /b/ coming over here, making a bunch of shit up.

>> No.2957226

>>2957209

>spoken at conferences

Best bit of the gig is the conference. You're a post-grad, so you're new meat. You get some foreign travel and you usually get to sex someone. All you have to do is write a paper, which is a piece of piss, and then stand there while a bunch of cunts try to rip your work to pieces and make you look like a twat. Then it's away to the bar.

I had one of the best weekends of my life in Malmo, and a fantastic time in North Carolina where I swear they thought I was Terry Eagleton or something - they didn't see a lot of people from yerp, I think.

>> No.2957224

>>2957206
>banging this bird I met
>who lived in Kew
Was that unintentional? It's pretty funny.

>> No.2957232

>>2957224

Certainly unintentional, because I don't see why it's funny myself. Explain my pun to me, plox, because I'm clearly stupid.

>> No.2957234

>>2957226
>conferences
That's another thing I've never done because I've never had any real idea what this PhD thing I'm doing is about.

>> No.2957239
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2957239

>>2957207

Do you have something against little girl with dark lines under their eyes and/or who are spookily, gothically pretty?

>> No.2957240

>>2957232
I assume Kew Gardens has a bird house.

OK, maybe it's not that funny. But I was slightly amused.

>> No.2957248
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2957248

OP MUST CONFORM.

Read what we tell you to read.
Think what we tell you to think.
Don't post strange pictures.

>> No.2957250
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2957250

>>2957240

Nah mate, it's a botanical gardens all full of palm trees and shit.

Then again, there may well be a birdhouse, it's years since I've been. Butterflies feature at some point, I believe.

>> No.2957255

>>2957207
well tbf it's pretty much "if you post on /lit/, you're a fuckhead"

so that applies to p much all of us

>> No.2957259

>that feel when OP goes to a shit tier college

>that feel when he ends up with no job and deep in debt when he gets out

Why are you even majoring in this

>> No.2957265

>>2957250
Oh yeah, doesn't seem to have an aviary anymore. Does have those parrots that escaped, though.

>> No.2957271

>>2957259
TFW? You actually feel happy when you see someone else fail?

>> No.2957269

>>2957248
>university courses require you to do the required reading
FASCISM!

>> No.2957279

>>2957226
It's them ripping my work to pieces and making me look like a twat that worries me. I don't think I have the figurative balls to stand up there and take people's endless criticism of my shoddy brain.

And I'm doing my PhD in a foreign language so there'd be less of the showing off my fancy accent to anglophilic Americans and more wincing as I accidentally insult someone's country and single-handedly start Faulklands II: This Time It's Personal or some shit.

>> No.2957280

>>2957271
Depends on the person. But in this case I was just reusing OP's greentexting.

>> No.2957281

>>2957265

>Does have those parrots that escaped,

You sure you're not talking about the ones that Jimi Hendrix released (or any one of a million explanations for London's Parrots)?

>> No.2957276

>>2957259

"Deep debt" with the new thing Obama passed means paying $350 a month for 25 years. Who cares?

>> No.2957286

>>2957269

as long as the work is done and the course is passed, what does it matter?

it's not like anyone is going to know if, years ago when you took a certain course, you actually read Gulliver's Travels or just read a summary of it.

wooptee doooo

>> No.2957283

>>2956775
>sparknoted it all
there is absolutely no reason to study English if you don't like it. It's very, very unlikely that you can use your degree for anything with even a whiff of job security.

>> No.2957289

>>2957271
>implying tfw is always a happy feel
Could be any kind of feel. Might be a sense of smug satisfaction at seeing justice done. Or wearied resignation at the inevitable outcome of man's folly. Or a craving for pie.

>> No.2957292

>>2957286
yeah but you'll know

and you'll be less educated than you would be.

like i said somewhere in the thread, you're only hurting yourself. but you are hurting yourself.