Excuse me as I rant about

[zesty_pinto]

Yes, American Lit. I have survived a semester of english-intensive courses, and out of all of them, the one that gave me the most work was American Literature.

What amazes me about the course is how much reading I had to do. I mean, overall it wasn't the most reading-intensive (I had a 20th century literature class that had me read a book a week, basically). What it gave me, though, was a lot of dense time-obscure work. These last few weeks were the worst because I had the worst matchup of all:

"Walden" and "Moby Dick"

Walden. Yeesh. The work that people comment as the book that really can't fit any genre. It took me a week of careful reading before I felt I thoroughly read the first chapter. I'm sure there's someone out there that can tell me how much they enjoyed reading it, or how much they gleaned from it, but as a work that took several weeks for me to go through and extricate ideas from... I was annoyed.

I wouldn't complain as much if I didn't have Melville's work right after. I never knew boredom until I read the book about the man who talks about the man who talks about the whale. I had to get behind in my other work because of Moby Dick and its continuous rant on how to whale, whaling terms, and biblical implications. It amazes me that I can read Nabokov and get something out of it in a week, and yet Moby Dick is still unfinished because I had to trudge through 400 pages of lethargic philosophy on whaling, meeting ships, and Jonah.

I guess this wouldn't annoy me as much if this wasn't a 200-level course. :\

Okay, rant over. Might as well finish this book once and for all so I can catch up with my work.

Comments

[valkyrieblue.livejournal.com]

Shoot one of my FAV classes! Sorry you don't like it or the work... Well, I loved the reading, but didn't like writing comparisons to other stories. I'd rather write my own subject thank you. :)

[zesty-pinto.livejournal.com]

It's okay. I will admit that it taught me quite a bit of new things, but Moby Dick was a tough nut to crack even in a few weeks, and Walden was definitely not my cup of tea.

I did find it entertaining that there was so much sexual reference in Moby Dick. It made me kind of question Melville's sexuality, though...

[valkyrieblue.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I remember a few stories with similar questions. If only I could find that book. It was a giant paperback with tons of short american lit stories in tiny writing.

Moby Dick...didn't read that one, but we read others. I can't remember the names for the moment, but I think The Lighthouse? and another that was filmed (depressing) with Michelle Pfeifer in it and Daniel (can't remember his last name). Fun class and good teacher. I'm sure that has some thing to do with liking it.

[zesty-pinto.livejournal.com]

I am so jealous. My professor gave me a really reading-intensive course that was nothing short of a gauntlet of readings. I remember hearing from another person that they had one where they just did some short stories and ended with "Last of the Mohicans."

I don't recommend reading "Moby Dick" unless you have time.


...and want a story that will try to educate you about whaling while confusing you about whaling by using obscure terms specifically related to whaling. >_

[sansira.livejournal.com]

I only ended up liking parts of Walden (I suggest the chapter called "Solitude") and I really only liked Moby Dick once I had a super duper awesome prof. who taught us how funny it is.
Because the whole scene in the bedroom with the tattooed Indian is just funny.
But just for the record, it's total baloney that you have to read that stuff in a sophomore level course.

[zesty-pinto.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we got into the whole QueeQueg thing, and there is a consistent use of language that suggests this romantic thing over the large Savage man that goes into the romantic. I've also read parts that seemed questionable (the big one I keep wondering about involves this one guy getting pissed because he wanted a whale steak made out of the whale's penis, but he wanted it rare and hard).

I just wish it kept interest with stuff like that and didn't go into tangents on types of whales, or how to whale, or the like. -_-

[jezebel-25.livejournal.com]

oh god, Moby Dick. Call me Ishmael? Call me bored to death.

I actually wrote a paper on that book when I was an undergrad. My thesis? How Moby Dick was a funny book. As in, funny/haha. Because I thought the damn thing was hysterical. Oh, I know it wasn't supposed to be, but I did get an A on it. (probably because I was the only one brave enough to write on the damn book)

good luck with american lit. Blah.

[zesty-pinto.livejournal.com]

Many thanks. Moby Dick does have moments. And for one thing, I did find some humor in the homoerotic themes (Squibb's supper, for example). Still... so much filler. x_x

I also wanted to ask you: what did you have to do in order to get into grad school? I'm not sure what the heck to do with a BA in English and I figure getting into a master's program would guarantee something a *little* better...