(no subject)
so, apparently only three people ever do the reading for my lit class, and everyone else is either too lazy to do it, or has serious comprehension problems. what does the professor elect as a solution? of course! let's have extra writing assignments due twice a week to force them to read! except that i DO read and i DO participate in class and i am really annoyed because i have two exams on monday (one is a ten page take-home that he didn't prepare us for; the other is an actual exam), and i really don't need anything else on my plate right now.
i'm also really annoyed at this lit class because the profe's always talking about doing literary analysis, but the most analytical we ever get is to make the observation that the indigenous peoples in these stories are being oppressed. yes, they are being tortured. yes, they're being marginalized. yes, there is an anti-capitalist message. yes, the united states is being bad again. but can we please do some actual LITERARY analysis? like, talk about how ineffective a flat "child" narrator is, or about the parallel storylines that show up, or about the use of letters as literary devices, or the refrigerator as a symbol of consumerism? or, if we're going to keep going with the class conflict and downtrodden peasantry, can we pull in some Marx or other historical documents, or discuss the indoctrination that's happening on both sides of the battle, causing ten year olds to use really big words like "exploitation" and "marginalization" in their poetry?
i'm supremely frustrated: i love reading, and the only way i read is by taking these classes. but we never talk about the actual LITERARY aspects of the texts; we talk about contrary discourses and anti-marginalization for days, but we never discuss writing style, the use of literary strategies, the effects these things have on the works we read. and i don't know if it's because the comprehension level is so low among the class that 30 minutes of plot summary is necessary, or if it's because people just don't have the vocabulary to have these conversations, and the professors don't feel like building that vocabulary up. and i don't know if it's wrong of me to be annoyed that we're skipping over the technical aspects of these works to get to the sexier parts. either way, i feel like i'm wasting my time, and like these assignments are absolutely stupid: i'm supposed to regurgitate in class discussion and talk about how peasant poetry is a beautiful thing because these young children are getting the opportunity to be revolutionary. i'm not supposed to talk about the endless repetition of images and themes, or about the poor use of narrative voice that winds up hurting the pro-marxist message the author clearly hopes to send. or about how not all of the poetry is really that inspirational, and i'm not really sure why we're reading it. because doing that would put me on the side of the bad guy capitalist dictators. which is just ridiculous: criticizing an author's or editor's choices has nothing to do with my actual politics; but i'm so afraid to say anything even vaguely controversial because i know it will be (intentionally) misconstrued to make me seem anti-pueblo.
also, i've been having some really bad stomach problems, my throat's been sore, and i'm exhausted all the time. i think i'm going to try the stupid approach of cutting out coffee for a while, and seriously cutting down on weird or potentially volatile foods (ie, things that aren't fruits, vegetables, oatmeal, yogurt, soup, and clean sandwiches on whole wheat bread) for a while to see if that makes it any better.
also, i went over my degree audit, and next year, i'm going to have room to take AS MANY LANGUAGE CLASSES AS I WANT. i've pretty much decided that i'm taking portuguese first quarter, although french and italian are both very viable (though currently less useful) alternatives. i also REALLY want to take hebrew, but am pretty certain that it's just a bad choice to take two language classes simultaneously. and i'm still not sure about the spanish thing--much as i hate the classes and want to shoot the department's philosophy, i love the reading i get to do. i'm just not sure about that minor.
okay, time to go work: two books and ten pages about the bolsheviks, robespierre and peasant uprisings to go!
i'm also really annoyed at this lit class because the profe's always talking about doing literary analysis, but the most analytical we ever get is to make the observation that the indigenous peoples in these stories are being oppressed. yes, they are being tortured. yes, they're being marginalized. yes, there is an anti-capitalist message. yes, the united states is being bad again. but can we please do some actual LITERARY analysis? like, talk about how ineffective a flat "child" narrator is, or about the parallel storylines that show up, or about the use of letters as literary devices, or the refrigerator as a symbol of consumerism? or, if we're going to keep going with the class conflict and downtrodden peasantry, can we pull in some Marx or other historical documents, or discuss the indoctrination that's happening on both sides of the battle, causing ten year olds to use really big words like "exploitation" and "marginalization" in their poetry?
i'm supremely frustrated: i love reading, and the only way i read is by taking these classes. but we never talk about the actual LITERARY aspects of the texts; we talk about contrary discourses and anti-marginalization for days, but we never discuss writing style, the use of literary strategies, the effects these things have on the works we read. and i don't know if it's because the comprehension level is so low among the class that 30 minutes of plot summary is necessary, or if it's because people just don't have the vocabulary to have these conversations, and the professors don't feel like building that vocabulary up. and i don't know if it's wrong of me to be annoyed that we're skipping over the technical aspects of these works to get to the sexier parts. either way, i feel like i'm wasting my time, and like these assignments are absolutely stupid: i'm supposed to regurgitate in class discussion and talk about how peasant poetry is a beautiful thing because these young children are getting the opportunity to be revolutionary. i'm not supposed to talk about the endless repetition of images and themes, or about the poor use of narrative voice that winds up hurting the pro-marxist message the author clearly hopes to send. or about how not all of the poetry is really that inspirational, and i'm not really sure why we're reading it. because doing that would put me on the side of the bad guy capitalist dictators. which is just ridiculous: criticizing an author's or editor's choices has nothing to do with my actual politics; but i'm so afraid to say anything even vaguely controversial because i know it will be (intentionally) misconstrued to make me seem anti-pueblo.
also, i've been having some really bad stomach problems, my throat's been sore, and i'm exhausted all the time. i think i'm going to try the stupid approach of cutting out coffee for a while, and seriously cutting down on weird or potentially volatile foods (ie, things that aren't fruits, vegetables, oatmeal, yogurt, soup, and clean sandwiches on whole wheat bread) for a while to see if that makes it any better.
also, i went over my degree audit, and next year, i'm going to have room to take AS MANY LANGUAGE CLASSES AS I WANT. i've pretty much decided that i'm taking portuguese first quarter, although french and italian are both very viable (though currently less useful) alternatives. i also REALLY want to take hebrew, but am pretty certain that it's just a bad choice to take two language classes simultaneously. and i'm still not sure about the spanish thing--much as i hate the classes and want to shoot the department's philosophy, i love the reading i get to do. i'm just not sure about that minor.
okay, time to go work: two books and ten pages about the bolsheviks, robespierre and peasant uprisings to go!