Re:The Decline and Fall of the English Major
by TeMPOraL on Monday June 24, 2013 @08:02AM
(#5932335)
> After you've mastered the pseudointellectual bemused sneer, English class is your oyster. My sister refused to be cynical, grappled with the texts and worked out some genuinely beautiful prose, and barely passed.
There is something to it. I got really great grades for my writing during school years, and the best works were usually either overly-honest-offtopics (that is, I believed I had more important real-life point to make), or cleverly disguised cynical criticisms of the whole idea of literature classes (I had a friend who was very cynical and direct in his writing, as he plainly didn't care; while he didn't get good grades for it, I remember his writings as the most interesting and fun to read). Things got easier for me when I learned how to bullshit my way out of any writing assignment (a surprisingly useful skill for university as well).
There is something to it. I got really great grades for my writing during school years, and the best works were usually either overly-honest-offtopics (that is, I believed I had more important real-life point to make), or cleverly disguised cynical criticisms of the whole idea of literature classes (I had a friend who was very cynical and direct in his writing, as he plainly didn't care; while he didn't get good grades for it, I remember his writings as the most interesting and fun to read). Things got easier for me when I learned how to bullshit my way out of any writing assignment (a surprisingly useful skill for university as well).