whereas in English you can have a theory and there's no need for anyone but the marker to agree with you *cough*

It's funny because it's true!

It's funny because it's true!

No, really, it's not. t /humorless ex-English teacher

Then again maybe insanely detailed historical analysis will go out of fashion in lit crit and we can all get back to good old fashioned close reading or inpenetrable abstract theorising...here's hoping!

Yes! The close reading and the inpenetrable theorising! I'm good at those. History is interesting, but I'm not so good at it.

in English you can have a theory and there's no need for anyone but the marker to agree with you *cough*

In fact, sometimes they don't even have to agree! You just have to argue it convincingly.

It's those damn pesky facts. They ruin everything, I tells ya.

Edit: now I look crazy, because everyone has faster fingers than me. Facts ruin history, that's all I'm sayin.

It's those damn pesky facts. They ruin everything, I tells ya.

I don't mind facts so much, it's having them in so many places and in so much doubt. I mean, "the text says blahblahblah" is a fact, and easy, and neat, because either it does or it doesn't and the only thing in doubt is what blahblahblah means, which is entirely personal; but "in 1430, people did blahblahblah" is presented as a fact, but it might not be. Especially if in three others books it says, "in 1430, people did yaddayaddayadda". And then you have to reference all four books, and that's okay when you're really interested in both blahblahblah and yaddayaddayadda, but when you not? It's no fun.

Um. Yeah. I may just be a little bored, here, and it's making me boring.

Whee, serial posting ahoy.

In fact, sometimes they don't even have to agree! You just have to argue it convincingly.

Oh, I love this part. Once when I was stupidly arguing that T.S Eliot's Prufrock was crap (do not mix caffeine, poetry analysis and deadlines--there is no good there), I actually had a teacher say to me that he respected my opinion even if he disagreed with it. Lovely tolerant man he was - if I were him, I would have locked me in a classroom and refused to let me out till I started speaking sense.

On edit:

It's no fun.

Yep, thus comes my avoidance. Which will no doubt bite me in the ass when I'm abducted by aliens and they won't let me go till I tell them who Australia's first Prime Minister was. You'd be surprised how often I worry about that, really. I choose to blame my over-indulgence in sci-fi as a child.

I actually had a teacher say to me that he respected my opinion even if he disagreed with it.

It's one of the things that makes English a wonderful subject. I've had similiar experiences, but the best example I've ever heard was my grandmother's story (she did English as her major subject when she went to collage as a muture student for a teaching degree) about arguing that, contrary to many tradition interpetations which have Desdemona a tragic heroine, she's actually a manipulative bitch (not my grandmother's words, but you get the idea). Her lecturer gave her an A-- one of the few he ever gave out-- partly for taking up a different stance.

It's one of the things that makes English a wonderful subject.

Mmmm...English. I'm already doing two courses of it, and would be doing more if I didn't like the idea of being able to afford food after I graduate so much.

I'm already doing two courses of it, and would be doing more if I didn't like the idea of being able to afford food after I graduate so much.

But Leigh... starving is so much more fun if you've got lots of happy reading to look back on.

But Leigh... starving is so much more fun if you've got lots of happy reading to look back on.

-sigh- the eternal debate...food vs pornliterature. How am I expected to choose between the two loves of my life? I can't help but think that Buffy "I'm made out of cookie dough" Summers wouldn't have this problem. ( The white-font is very vague dialogue-spoiler snark from BtVS 7.22)