Call me crazy, but so far there's only one thing that I don't like about studying at a liberal arts school. The fact that my gen ed classes prevent me from doing what I truly enjoy doing: writing literature analyses.
I know, I know, it's extremely strange. Who on earth likes to write papers?! But it's one of the only forms of writing that I enjoy. It's like the lab for a science major. My good friend is in the TTU nursing school and the way she talks about the excitement and challenge of dissecting a lamb's heart or something is the way that I feel and talk about dissecting the words of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" or something.
Literature allows me to combine my creativity and my logical at the same time. I get satisfaction in using my imagination to read the stories and also in exercising my intellect. I love pictures and symbols and being able to relate to them, to the author.
In fact, I'm in the middle of a break from an 8-10 page paper on a 5 page short story: "I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen.
It sounds like a difficult task but it's not really. Because there's so much to discover within the text. It's a new adventure every time you read it. With each read you better understand the author and characters and the text (usually whether you agree with it or not) becomes more and more dear to your heart.
I've never been a writer, I don't trust my creative instincts enough. But I love to interpret. There's no pressure for perfection. I can be as outlandish as I want as long as I have evidence in the text. Plus it's a perfect avenue for discussion. I love that about my professors. I never feel pressure to come up with conversation pieces because I know we can always talk about what books we're reading and what we think about them.
I have friends who are music majors who talk about music in this way. It's more than just a form of expression or something to fun to study at school. It's almost a lifestyle. The way my friends hear music and musical patterns and counts everywhere they go is the same way that I see imagery and archetypes and compare people and myself to characters and situations I've read before.
It's also one of the ways God shares things with me sometimes (through his crazy metaphors) and of course I just eat it up.
It makes me miss my sister. Who taught me to love literature. Who continues to hand me the best books ever. Who inspires me with her passion for writing. Goodness grief I love her so stinking much.
Oh I understand you. I'm taking mostly sciencey classes but I have one English class. And I love it. The other day was particularly lovely because we had to write this paper about The Great Gatsby. My teacher said my paper was the only one that was different out of like 185. That made me feel weird. But also cool. I LOVE writing critical analyses. And from that pretentious story of mine, you can conclude that I am the only one at this school who does. Or so it seems.
ReplyDeleteEnglish and I have always been friends. I, too, love coming up with crazy interpretations evidenced in text. One time, one of my friends answered the essay prompt, "What does Mr. Darcy want?" by writing that all he wanted was a milkshake. She found lines to back her up in the text and it was ridiculous. And magical.
Also: The Lottery… YES
Haha I don't know if ALL Darcy wanted a milkshake, but then that would explain why Elizabeth was always walking around her yard with men. (Okay that was a bad joke)
DeleteThe Great Gatsby is a great one, I'd have to re-read it in order to get stuff out of it. We focused on Historical criticism when we read it so I didn't pay as much attention as I would now.
The Lottery as in the short story that's kind of a lot like The Hunger Games? Yeah, that was great. Man, I need to bring that up in my next convo about those books...
I affirm that your sister is complete and total awesome. She's seriously too fun and Wisconsin is TOO FAR away.
ReplyDeleteI remember hitting a stride in college when I enjoyed analysis too. Clearly, your adorably brilliant mind is already in the zone. :) It took me longer. Significantly. But once I figured out to analyze a piece of lit without beating a confession out of it (that's one of my favorite Billy Collins poems... when he talks about how students want to torture poetry but he just wants them to hold it up to the light...), it was fun. You should ponder teaching literature at a college level someday. I bet you would absolutely adore it (and the classes leading up to it).
Thank you I think "adorably brilliant" is the best compliment my mind has ever received. :)
DeleteI haven't gotten the hang of poetry yet. It's like abstract art when some people look at it and say "I just don't get it" but hopefully that will change with the unit on poetry I start in class this week.
I really want to teach at a college level, I think that's ultimately my dream even if I don't always realize or voice it. I like digging into books way more than most high school curriculum calls for.