Re:The Decline and Fall of the English Major
by mechanical_fish on Monday June 24, 2013 @01:37AM
(#5931220)
I also want to learn what literature can teach me. So: I read it. It's designed for that.
Literary critics can also be very enlightening. But, by a strange coincidence, most of their work is written down, and often collected by libraries and websites. To admire their ideas is just a matter of time and coffee.
If I were inclined I could even try to write some literature, and thereby connect with the noble tradition – one which dominates the canon and is far older than university literature programs – of "learning to write by practicing reading, writing, and publishing stuff instead of by jumping through expensive hoops to get a formal degree."
It is true that economics aren't everything. But when the fifty thousand dollars in student loans comes due one begins to realize that they are something.
Literary critics can also be very enlightening. But, by a strange coincidence, most of their work is written down, and often collected by libraries and websites. To admire their ideas is just a matter of time and coffee.
If I were inclined I could even try to write some literature, and thereby connect with the noble tradition – one which dominates the canon and is far older than university literature programs – of "learning to write by practicing reading, writing, and publishing stuff instead of by jumping through expensive hoops to get a formal degree."
It is true that economics aren't everything. But when the fifty thousand dollars in student loans comes due one begins to realize that they are something.