Grunty DaGnome

LOL! This professor is in Holland, Michigan! Where swearing is illegal! While I agree that not everyone who gets a PhD gets to be a professor, I have to ask him this; what the f*ck! No one in Holland has a good job! Believe it or not, I know someone who went to a math summer research insititute at Hope College and they said it was the biggest mistake they ever made in life. They still have acid-like Hope College flashbacks about the nurse Ratchety professors there!

You still haven't heard anything? Gosh, when will you know?

You still haven't heard anything? Gosh, when will you know?

You still haven't heard anything? Gosh, when will you know?

You still haven't heard anything? Gosh, when will you know?

Oh yes. That's one of my favorites as well.

You still haven't heard anything? Gosh, when will you know?

Oh yes. That's one of my favorites as well.

What is interesting is that my old scores as reported on my 2006 mailer put my percentile rankings at V:94% Q:81% and AW: 77%.

Now, they are V:94% Q:80% and AW:84%.

Weird that my "5" on the written test changed quite a bit, and that's the numerical score that does NOT change under the new scale ?!?

Amen to all this! I'm leaving a fairly decent job in a profession I don't love. It feels like crap to excel at something that destroys you daily.

You still haven't heard anything? Gosh, when will you know?

You still haven't heard anything? Gosh, when will you know?

Amen to all this! I'm leaving a fairly decent job in a profession I don't love. It feels like crap to excel at something that destroys you daily.

You still haven't heard anything? Gosh, when will you know?

This is my favorite part, right here. Before you pathetic humanties types try and attack this genius an point out that deconstruction stuff and your stupid mimesis and stuff, I just want to say that everyone knows that the Simpsons are real and there are no writers of the Simpsons. The Simpsons live in Springfield, where everyone knows, that the Simpsons hates liberal arts and likes to just eat nuclear donuts which is really the highest form of art you don't even half to study for. You are so lame to stay up all night working on that application because you should just eat a nuclear donut and then you could climb walls like Spiderman, who is also real.

Thank you.

You still haven't heard anything? Gosh, when will you know?

Amen to all this! I'm leaving a fairly decent job in a profession I don't love. It feels like crap to excel at something that destroys you daily.

LOL! This professor is in Holland, Michigan! Where swearing is illegal! While I agree that not everyone who gets a PhD gets to be a professor, I have to ask him this; what the f*ck! No one in Holland has a good job! Believe it or not, I know someone who went to a math summer research insititute at Hope College and they said it was the biggest mistake they ever made in life. They still have acid-like Hope College flashbacks about the nurse Ratchety professors there!

I know. This is the only downside at CUNY. Keeping it going for 5-6 years or 7 or 8 is an exhausting prospect. It's the only think keeping CUNY from being my #1 choice. Exhausting as the proposition of a working PhD would be, I'm sure whomever manages to finish their PhDs are like full service combat PhDs.

i liked this response. balanced, tactful, and concise

My university's Lit Department had a cross-listed Harry Potter course with a science department (maybe physics?,) and it was called The Science of Harry Potter.


Everyone wanted into it, but it had only 10 spaces open: 5 for English Lit majors, 5 for whatever science majors. It was a 100-level class filled with seniors. I wanted to take it so bad.

Wow Whoa Wow. That was definitely of my favorite books as a kid. I don't think that it's a full adult-type of book, but for a contemplative teenager it definitely does the job. Also, though, I went to UChicago for ugrad and the protagonist/author is definitely that kind of person...



What in the world is female philosophy?? (hoping my utter confusion is not confused for sexism)
In regards to contemporary logic-driven philosophy, the book definitely stands in opposition to that tradition (at least by the end).



You basically need to know German. Translation is a real issue for it.

ALL OF CANADIAN LIT!!!!

Sorry, had to get that out of my system But seriously, I grew up in the Canadian public school system and was subjected to the delights of W.O. Mitchell's Who Has Seen the Wind, and Margaret Laurence's The Stone Angel (we all called it The Stoned Angel instead). I just read through this entire thread and I couldn't believe that no one mentioned these two. Then I remembered that y'all are mostly Americans - lucky you!

I second this recommendation. Yale's online courses have been very beneficial for me in filling in gaps not offered by my undergrad institution. For a different sort of approach to theory (one that was largely unfamiliar to me as an American, although like I said, my undergrad has curriculum gaps) you could check out Cambridge's Itunes U course on Literary Criticism as well.

That's true & I understand that but that is not the same argument. You are talking about pursuing athletics professionally which everyone knows -- has to be done from a very young age to be successful.
That's like saying "I want t to become a ballerina or an astronaut at 34." Um, no you're not. But his argument in the article is not about being basically crazy -- it's about his condescending view towards undergrad students.
How can a professor in good conscience try to quash a young person's love of learning and reading? It's despicable. He shouldn't have a column.

This gets down to values. Being in the arts my entire life -- I've heard this argument lobbed at me repeatedly. It always irritated me. Do you think that college should be a time to explore yourself, your interests, your values? To learn to think critically and learn what it means to think, to become educated? Or do you think it's just about following a track to get a job?
I think it's a big mistake -- I don't know how this guy has a column -- to try to tell students that they should all become doctors and lawyers. Or what? I really don't understand what he's advocating. And anyway, he's not even talking about the arts -- he's talking about academia. Which, to me, is even more bizarre.
Has he looked around at the world?
It's very difficult in the workforce. Corporate America isn't the answer to a fulfilling life, imho.
Again: what's the alternative? We should all go get our MBAs? There is no guarantee in that either.
We are moving as a society where it's the haves and have-nots.
There are the elites and the non-elites. It used to be apparent in the arts -- now I guess it's apparent in academia.
Now college is basically unaffordable.
So many things I took for granted growing up are broken and need fixing.
What's next?
So this guy gets a column to shake his head, tsk tsk tsk and wave his finger at students he looks down upon for what?
Wanting to go to college, loving learning, and wanting to read books?
What's the world coming to?