![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
'who're you going to pray to,' she said, 'who's your god, anyway?'
I am very, very nervous about the Romantics midterm, and have subsequently spent many hours rereading the entire syllabus. I now feel a deep kinship with Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Mary Shelley. (Not Austen, though I read her too. I will never feel a kinship with Austen. She is too painfully dull.) Conclusions: I like Blake's shorter poems, but not so much his longer works. Although The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is irreverent, and strange, and unsettling, and amusing, and just plain weird, and I do like that one. Wordsworth is a rambling babbler who would not know the meaning of "less is more" if it smacked him on the face; regardless, I've always had an affection for his writings. And he does have interesting things to say, if you can manage to untangle his endless sentences. Also was pleasantly surprised by "The Thorn", which is wonderfully gothic and visual and unusually concise.
Coleridge, I do not like so much. Perhaps I've read "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" too many damn times for too many damn classes. "Christabel" had its moments, but nothing else really grabbed me. And considering that she's a Romantic-era prose-writer, I liked Mary Shelley more than I expected too. Frankenstein is an undeniably exciting story, and Mathilda is, well, weird. But interesting enough.
The last few writers - Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and Keats - should make it all worth it. Especially Shelley. I do so very much enjoy Shelley.
200d, last year, was such a painful experience that I'd almost forgotten why I was an English major, but I'm remembering now. I am still always surprised when someone asks me what my major is and looks vaguely horrified by my response; it's the same reaction I have to, say, chemistry or math majors. I've never felt particularly brilliant or gifted at anything, and it's especially easy to feel insignificant here at Smith, where there is always guaranteed to be someone who can do anything better than I can. It's not a matter of being brilliant at it, though; literature is simply what I feel at home with. Other things I can have a passing, even passionate, interest in, but it doesn't have the intangible familiarity that I get with English. It's just what I know best. And what I like best, luckily.
---
Linsey will be here in a week, which is absolutely delightful. Thanksgiving break is a few days later. And when I return from that, there are only three and a half weeks left of the semester, which is a slightly terrifying thought (academically speaking) and a mostly relieving one. This semester has not been one to write home about; I will be overjoyed when it ends.
Coleridge, I do not like so much. Perhaps I've read "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" too many damn times for too many damn classes. "Christabel" had its moments, but nothing else really grabbed me. And considering that she's a Romantic-era prose-writer, I liked Mary Shelley more than I expected too. Frankenstein is an undeniably exciting story, and Mathilda is, well, weird. But interesting enough.
The last few writers - Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and Keats - should make it all worth it. Especially Shelley. I do so very much enjoy Shelley.
200d, last year, was such a painful experience that I'd almost forgotten why I was an English major, but I'm remembering now. I am still always surprised when someone asks me what my major is and looks vaguely horrified by my response; it's the same reaction I have to, say, chemistry or math majors. I've never felt particularly brilliant or gifted at anything, and it's especially easy to feel insignificant here at Smith, where there is always guaranteed to be someone who can do anything better than I can. It's not a matter of being brilliant at it, though; literature is simply what I feel at home with. Other things I can have a passing, even passionate, interest in, but it doesn't have the intangible familiarity that I get with English. It's just what I know best. And what I like best, luckily.
---
Linsey will be here in a week, which is absolutely delightful. Thanksgiving break is a few days later. And when I return from that, there are only three and a half weeks left of the semester, which is a slightly terrifying thought (academically speaking) and a mostly relieving one. This semester has not been one to write home about; I will be overjoyed when it ends.
no subject
Seriously, though, your knowledge of literature is *really* impressive.
And by the way... how did you make your journal layout? I love it!
no subject
And Jane Austen... blech, I can't help it. Lord knows I've *tried*. I certainly feel like a terrible English major, not liking her work.
Honestly, I can't even remember how I made the layout. It's sort of a combination of two of the basic pre-made styles, and a lot of random tweaking. No particular skill involved, for my html is terrible.