Letters to the Editor
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Susan Sunflower: I'd like to pull your petals off
"I'm still wondering why someone so good at math became an English Major and wonder if it was fall-back degree for someone unable to muster the requisite concentration and discipline to pursue math or engineering ... degrees much more likely to result in well paying employment."
Are you serious? Sure, I concede your last point--An English degree is less likely to result in a well-paying job than, say, engineering or mathematics.
But come on... pursuing an English degree because one is "unable to muster the requisite concentration and discipline..."
WHOA. I don't know what school you went to, or what major you decided to pursue... but it seems as if your experience with the study of English remains tethered to experiences gained from the requisite gen ed requirements for most universities... a fast-track introductory course--a little Eliot here, a smidge of Chaucer there--revolving around the standard five-paragraph essay, or book report class presentation, one that is designed for you left-brain squares who are unable to walk around the great themes of literature without tripping on nuance, or stumbling on irony.
When you can rattle off a lucid paragraph summary of Finnegans Wake, or discuss the finer points of heroic comparison in Chapman's Odysseus vs Spencer's Faerie Queen--then maybe you can talk.