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Help me regain my love of literature!



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Thu May 06, 2010 12:57 pm
Luvzi12 says...



I hope this is the right place to post, looked at all the forums and felt like this was the most appropriate.

I'm 21 years old and just about to graduate from uni with a degree in English Literature. The problem I have now is that I've just realised how pointless it is! I apologise now to anyone reading this, I hope no one gets offended as I am writing here to ask for everyone's advice.

All my life I've enjoyed literature and wanted to be a writer, but in September of last year I just started to lose enthusiasm for the subject. I was in the library reading a critical theory book when it occurred to me, the only people who will ever read this books are students like me, and after reading the book, writing an essay on it, they will leave university to go off and write books like these for other students to read. It's just an endless cycle, and at the end of the day it's all a bit pointless. All we're doing is reading literature and then passing judgement on it, and who gives us the right to do that? Literature is art, it shouldn't be studied and analysed and judged, sure it's good to be wide-read and appreciative of literature, but critiquing it?

I'm about to leave university and go into the world of employment, where most likely I will be working with books, reading and judging. Is this all there is? Have I wasted three years of my life reading books? I mean, they're just books! Surely I should have done something worthwhile with my time and just read in my spare time?

Help me out guys, give me some of your passion that I see and read in the way you write, in the way you discuss literature with each other. What am I missing here? I had passion for literature once upon a time, why have I lost it now? How can I get it back? Sorry for bringing down the tone of what is an excellent and happy forum, but if anyone can help me get my love of literature back I know it's you lot! Thanks for reading, and please help :(
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Fri May 07, 2010 1:10 am
RayquazaKid says...



It might be possible that you might be a little burnt out. I myself am like that right now, though I seem to be growing out of it. IT's times like this that one must remind themself of what literature really is.

Literature in it's simplicity is a medium of telling a story. Myself, I write stories in the hope that one day someone will read them. If even one person is satisfied (which chances are I could get at least one.), then I think I would have been successful.

Literature is also a way to immortalize ideas. We see it all the time, whether it be in something as standard as an encyclopedia or as complex as a full length-novel. Literature is a way for an author for express themselves.

And at the end of the day, I don't worry about it. I write because I enjoy to, I like to see my ideas put onto paper. I don't write because I feel pressured too, I don't write because I could become famous and wealthy, I don't write to gain droves of adoring fans. I write because I enjoy it, because they are the stories I would like to read.

So think about that. And in the meantime, take a break. Get a little fresh air, do something else for a while. IN maybe a couple weeks, maybe even four, you can come back. Every one needs a break at some point, and it might be time for yours.

And one more thing, they aren't just books. They are entire worlds, characters, plots... ideas. Remember that.

:)
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Sun May 09, 2010 1:38 am
Snoink says...



This is why I went into biochemical engineering. ;) Although, we call "literature" articles like: "Lignocellulosic Biomass to Ethanol Process Design and Economics Utilizing Co-Current Dilute Acid Prehydrolysis and Enzymatic Hydrolysis Current and Futuristic Scenarios." Uh huh. >.>

Anyway, literature is beautiful! You should like it! Inside those tomes of books is the history of mankind. That's why I like it. All the information of the universe is within those books... we just have to learn how to decode them. So you can be a translator. Thinking critically about literature is hardly a bad thing, I think.
Ubi caritas est vera, Deus ibi est.

"The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly." ~ Richard Bach

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Sun May 09, 2010 9:46 pm
Luvzi12 says...



Thanks for the comments everyone :) You really helped! I have a creative writing assignment at the minute and I was really struggling, but my friend just looked over it and she helped me SO much! It was wierd, she would just point out all these subtle things I had overlooked and it reminded me about how the writer really creates things. They're not just telling a story, they're drawing the reader in, they're creating an entire world. I know that's what RayquzaKid said, "they aren't just books. They are entire worlds, characters, plots" and I really didn't understand it at first, because I kept thinking it doesn't matter because, at the end of the day, none of it is real. But now I get it again. Literature isn't just make-believe children's stuff, it is academic, even if you're not writing to be political, or to make a statement, it is important and it's not just a hobby (although it can be!). So, thanks so much for taking the time to reply because I really think I have just got a second wind and actually feel confident that I can now, not only write these stories, but I want to write them! And that means more to me than words can say :)

Thanks so much, and @Snoink, your course sounds so complicated! I don't envy you at all haha! Good luck!

Emma x
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