[RepoGirl]

Way back in the late 80s, as part of my Creative Writing major, I had to take a literary criticism course.

I cut my own throat in class one day by stating that I felt ideological critiques of literary works were nothing more than intellectual masturbation. The audacity of youth, I guess. I held with the New Critical theory, and still do, that art itself is the thing, and that anything else applied to it was meaningless. I angered many feminists and lefties that day, when I stated that Emily Dickinson's work was not a product of her bourgious upbringing or her color or her sexual orientation.

I was the only actual writer in the class among a bunch of literature, philosophy, poly sci and feminist studies majors, and felt I had more of an insight into the mind/soul and experience of a writer. My own work was not the product of my political views etc. I argued this, and was called a jerk in so many words. Boy was I an arrogant scamp back then. Aw hell, I still am.

[NZerFromHK]

I once read that at places like Oxbridge in Britain, if you present your arguments to analyuse literatures for their own sake with sufficient evidence and brilliant organization of your arguments, even if the Tutor or Lecturer is a feminist/Marxist/racial critic he/she would still give you high marks and respect your work. Is that the case at your old university?

[beef]

I have never understood the obsession that people have with fiction. It's just FICTION, OK? Somebody MADE IT UP. I indulge in it for entertainment, but a huge number of people think it's the real world. How can people take this crap so seriously when the people, places and situations are all clearly the products of someone's imagination? If you want to make a point about something, why not talk about things that actually happened?  Literary analysis is nothing more than a form of Rorschach test, and it seems the more bizarre the rantings, the more brilliant the analyst.

I went to engineering school, and as you can imagine, I did not do too well in my humanities classes. Oh well.

[SauronOfMordor]

I cut my own throat in class one day by stating that I felt ideological critiques of literary works were nothing more than intellectual masturbation.

I think that any critiques of literary works are intellectual masturbation. Just READ the damn stuff. If it speaks to you, then great. If it doesn't, find something that does.

I just think that too many literary critics are trying to cover up their own creative constipation