In the post-collegiate defined world, it is often that a discussion commences along the lines of what subject an individual has previously deemed his or her “MAJOR”. For me, that choice that had and still has massive ramifications was light-headedly, most casually check marked as, “English”. Today, at the start of my many confessions, I often catch myself scoffing or chuckling as I admit my naively selected subject of choice. Hey, it’s the language we speak… What’s wrong with that?
It is a seemingly ill-fated decision to study English in a world that seems more power-driven, more monetarily focused than ever. How can a practical person not laugh at oneself about picking a major that’s not so pragmatic as, let’s say, Mathematical Modeling in Political Science or Economics? “Be a doctor, whydontcha?” “Be a lawyer, smartypants poopybreath!”
Math.
There’s an article on the New Yorker’s website by Adam Gopnik about the value of studying English as a formal study. I really liked his piece. This is my favorite part:
“No sane person proposes or has ever proposed an entirely utilitarian, production-oriented view of human purpose. We cannot merely produce goods and services as efficiently as we can, sell them to each other as cheaply as possible, and die. Some idea of symbolic purpose, of pleasure-seeking rather than rent seeking, of Doing Something Else, is essential to human existence… No civilization we think worth studying, or whose relics we think worth visiting, existed without what amounts to an English department—texts that mattered, people who argued about them as if they mattered, and a sense of shame among the wealthy if they couldn’t talk about them, at least a little, too. It’s what we call civilization.” (You can find the rest of the article here).
Books are magic, baby.
Especially as a media lover, I completely agree with the sentiment that humanity needs other pursuits besides solely utilitarian functions. I think that most people who follow series or have a Netflix subscription can identify with that.
But in another sense, I strongly disagree. In a way, I think that being an English major is an extremely practical subject to study in an everyday sort of way… I know I sound crazy, but try to follow me here. Socio-verbal, writing, and critical analysis skills are reinforced through literary studies. These assets assist in all sorts of regular scenarios: drafting pesky emails to irresponsible fastfood mascots, presenting edible underwear models at formal business luncheons, finding something interesting to say at boring family reunions, analyzing the positive attributes of a surprisingly attractive blind date, etc. Just stop and think about how much you use your language skills throughout one entire day, how you express yourself digitally as well as in person.
Punctuation is valuable too.
When one elects to “take the plunge” as an English major, the expectation is never to earn millions upon millions of dollars to rub against oneself endlessly. But just because wealth isn’t waiting around the corner for a literary major, doesn’t make the study itself moot. English is still pertinent in the monetary machine; after all, it’s the language we speak.