Life as an English Major. Phase the First.

The Major in English requires more of it's students then a love of reading. I am quickly learning this. The English Major student will not always love - or even like - the literature they will be required to read. It's so much more then seeing themes and literary elements. And while the English Major understands going in that writing will of course be required, this particular English Major didn't expect said writing to be so hard. It also is no help that I started with English 346: Victorian Literature. I didn't take into consideration that the class is a 300 level class. I should have taken a lower level to start off with. I only knew that I wanted to take the class based on it's century.

And really it's not that bad. I'm just trying to get my footing. I never got less then an A on any of my papers at Forsyth Tech. Suddenly at Salem I'm not making the connections I apparently need to be making.

This semester so far I've read David Copperfield by Charles Dickens and completely loved it. I plan to read more Dickens in the future. Currently we are on Middlemarch by George Eliot. I couldn't finish it. I had to read the Sparknotes version. Either my concentration is shot for the semester or the book started getting boring or I felt too much under pressure to finish it, but for whichever reason, I couldn't finish it. I think Middlemarch is maybe anti-climatic after David Copperfield. I don't know. Maybe one day I will read Middlemarch all the way through, but for the sake of the semester, I think settling for Sparknotes will work fine. Next up is Tess of the D'ubervilles by Thomas Hardy. I only hope it will not disappoint. I am considering though to just skip the actual reading and do the Sparknotes for this too, and actually read it later. I do want to read it though. Also, all this school reading leaves no time for leisure reading. How I miss Rachel Cohn and Kim Harrison, and my Scottish romance novels. It only makes me look forward to the summer, as I am taking it off.

The writing. I've done one literature paper so far this semester and it was a disaster. Either I got lazy or I wasn't sure exactly what to write but it was a disaster. And my next paper is a research paper. Oh that's all fine and dandy, if I didn't have to write the paper on the literature. Which, yes, would defeat the purpose of the class. I was hoping to write about Victorian history - Magic Lantern Shows or the life of Queen Victoria. No. We had to think of a question we have about something we've read this semester and attempt to answer it. It sounds simple enough except I couldn't come up with a question until the last minute and I don't care enough about the question to want to write about it. The roles of women in Victorian poetry (well that part I love, but we had to be specific) particularly in Camelot. Yay. I'd rather find some theme in Dickens and write about that. Maybe I can find some other question to try and answer.

The semester is almost over and I am excited. Maybe in the fall I can take a lower level Lit class. Maybe I'll survive better.