snap!

[adelaidesean]

Of his experience studying English at university level, Garry Disher says (in the latest issue of Lumen, the University of Adelaide Alumni Magazine):

"I hated it. Back then I was already keen on becoming a writer, and it seemed to me that English was going to ruin my love of reading and books. I found the analysis of the novels we were reading too academic, too difficult, and in some respects wrong-headed. But I was just a kid, what did I know? I wasn't ready for that way of looking at literature."

I had the same experience at high school. It feels very weird to be a PhD candidate now.

(Received my first knock-back for a conference paper the other day. It didn't occur to me that by entering this world I'd be opening myself to rejections from a whole new sector!)

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Listening to: Harold Budd & Robin Guthrie - How Close Your Soul

Comments

[wandering-nomad.livejournal.com]

I absolutely loved my English classes in highschool, I loved my college writing and composition classes. But once we started hitting the literary analysis it absolutely killed my love for reading and writing. After my first literary analysis class it took me a good year and a half to get back into my normal habit of reading.

(also, I feel I should mention that I found this blog because my friend recommended the Geodesica books to me, good stuff!)

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the kind words! Here's hoping those books are never analysed at school. :-)