Blurred Line

I've been asked a few times about what kind of impact studying for an English Lit degree has on my writing. The answer's kind of complicated. Sometimes there's a significant impact, but mostly not so much.

Here in Year 5 (yes, I'm doing a victory lap), I'm already starting to assume a post-academic mindset. Or, to put it more simply, I don't really care that much about school anymore. "D is for diploma" is my mantra. The reason for this is that, essentially, once you've taken one series of English Lit lectures, you've pretty much taken them all. After so many years at school, you develop the skills to critique the literature you read without the help of the prof and the point of attending class is just to gather the prof's thoughts so that you can regurgitate them on the final exam. Doesn't paint a terribly pretty picture, does it? I'll be honest, when I'm not terribly interested in the material in a given class, I don't go all that often. I'll do enough to pass, but the unfortunate fact of the matter, is that I'm probably not losing all that much, intellectually speaking, by staying at home.

So, it was a nice change to have a couple of seminar classes on my schedule this year. Now this is how university should be. If you're not familiar with the setup of a seminar, the prof simply acts as a guide to discussion, while the students (usually 12-15) sit around a table and talk about the book. As you might imagine, I've never missed a seminar class. It's a fabulous environment, though it's a little sobering to see just how intelligent everyone else is.

Anyhow, back to the question at the heart. How has university impacted my writing? Well, it's exposed me to a lot of great literature. Honestly, that's about all that can be said for my years of taking lecture classes. I mean, sure, you learn how to recognize symbolism and metaphor and all that kind of stuff but, as a writer, chances are you might have been doing a lot of that kind of stuff unconsciously anyway. As for the seminars, it's too early to tell if these'll help me develop, but seeing people's differing reactions to certain aspects of novels is definitely a fascinating experience for a writer. I'm sure you get this to some extent if you've ever been part of a book club or some similar type of group.

Then again, I'm the boy who comes home from class and writes genre fiction, which is almost universally sneered at in academic circles. So maybe I just haven't been paying enough attention.


Profile Editor. Writer. 9-5er. Lord of the Dance. Blurredline.com Apodis Publishing Fusion Fragment cterrill(at)blurredline.com Buy Goodbye, Darwin Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format Buy Blurred Line Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format The Short Stuff "Learning Magic From Mint" - published May 2007 in Atomjack "Between Eternities" - published October 2005 at Speculative.ca "Smoke and Mirrors" - published June 2005 in Byzarium Submissions Log Total Subs: 25 Acceptances: 3 Rejections: 17 Withdrawals: 3 Subs Out: 2 Quality Blogs Scalzi's Whatever Dave's Blogography Bookslut The Struggling Writer SF Signal the0phrastus Paperback Writer Scribe's Writing Desk Nathan Bransford Lyons Literary LLC The World in the Satin Bag Book In The Oven The Word Perhaps We Learned Something... Words, etc. Archives March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 Et Cetera Cavan @ Last.fm Cavan @ LibraryThing Feeds Atom Feed RSS Feed	Monday, October 23, 2006 - Ach-ademia I've been asked a few times about what kind of impact studying for an English Lit degree has on my writing. The answer's kind of complicated. Sometimes there's a significant impact, but mostly not so much. Here in Year 5 (yes, I'm doing a victory lap), I'm already starting to assume a post-academic mindset. Or, to put it more simply, I don't really care that much about school anymore. "D is for diploma" is my mantra. The reason for this is that, essentially, once you've taken one series of English Lit lectures, you've pretty much taken them all. After so many years at school, you develop the skills to critique the literature you read without the help of the prof and the point of attending class is just to gather the prof's thoughts so that you can regurgitate them on the final exam. Doesn't paint a terribly pretty picture, does it? I'll be honest, when I'm not terribly interested in the material in a given class, I don't go all that often. I'll do enough to pass, but the unfortunate fact of the matter, is that I'm probably not losing all that much, intellectually speaking, by staying at home. So, it was a nice change to have a couple of seminar classes on my schedule this year. Now this is how university should be. If you're not familiar with the setup of a seminar, the prof simply acts as a guide to discussion, while the students (usually 12-15) sit around a table and talk about the book. As you might imagine, I've never missed a seminar class. It's a fabulous environment, though it's a little sobering to see just how intelligent everyone else is. Anyhow, back to the question at the heart. How has university impacted my writing? Well, it's exposed me to a lot of great literature. Honestly, that's about all that can be said for my years of taking lecture classes. I mean, sure, you learn how to recognize symbolism and metaphor and all that kind of stuff but, as a writer, chances are you might have been doing a lot of that kind of stuff unconsciously anyway. As for the seminars, it's too early to tell if these'll help me develop, but seeing people's differing reactions to certain aspects of novels is definitely a fascinating experience for a writer. I'm sure you get this to some extent if you've ever been part of a book club or some similar type of group. Then again, I'm the boy who comes home from class and writes genre fiction, which is almost universally sneered at in academic circles. So maybe I just haven't been paying enough attention. Cavan blogged at 10:47 AM \| 2 comments	Progress Zilch! 0/0 Listening A.J. Croce - "Maybe I'm Amazed" My Music Reading Bright Lights, Big City - Jay McInerney My Library Watching Black Book: B Sweet and Lowdown: C Breakfast on Pluto: B Wishlist Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo Rachael Yamagata - Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart