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Started By
Message
re: Liberal Arts Majors: Did your college courses prepare you for your jobs?
Posted on 3/9/15 at 9:49 pm to CapitalCityDevil
Posted on 3/9/15 at 9:49 pm to CapitalCityDevil
A good liberal arts program should prepare the critical thinking skills such that they can pick up instructions quickly and make good decisions.
Heck, when I finished my MBA in accounting, I still had to learn how to audit on the job.
Heck, when I finished my MBA in accounting, I still had to learn how to audit on the job.
0
Posted on 3/9/15 at 9:49 pm to DrinkDrankDrunk
Compare the study of his work to that of traditional literary studies. It is practically nonexistent.
My guess is that 80-90% of the people on this website don't know who DFW is without googling the name.
My guess is that 80-90% of the people on this website don't know who DFW is without googling the name.
Posted on 3/9/15 at 9:52 pm to CapitalCityDevil
quote:
Sorry if fat neckbeards is a confusing term. Think of it like a "lightyear". On the outside it looks like a unit of time, but it is actually a unit of distance. "Fat neckbeard" describes a state of being, not the actual looks of the individual. It is an internet thing, I figured it made it here by now.
Ha I know what neckbeards are. My contention is that they do not make up English departments. No English department I've ever seen has had what you would call a neckbeard.
quote:
And it is very true, our colleges have barely begun teach DFW's work even though it is some of the most complex writing of the 20th-21st century.
You really don't know what you are talking about. DFW was on college syllabi when he was still alive. As far as the complexity goes, it's not any more complex than William Burroughs or any of the other writers who fall under the blanket term of "Postmodernism." He's just the most popular. There are lots of contemporary writers who are read in English departments.
Posted on 3/9/15 at 9:53 pm to CapitalCityDevil
I'm not a Liberal Arts Major, and I can tell you my college education did dick to prepare me for the real world.
Posted on 3/9/15 at 9:54 pm to CapitalCityDevil
quote:
Compare the study of his work to that of traditional literary studies. It is practically nonexistent.
Do you have a study proving this? I just did a quick search on JSTOR. David Foster Wallace got more hits than Toni Morrison, who was the last American to win the Nobel Prize in literature.
I think you are basing a lot of this on your perception, which isn't accurate.
Posted on 3/9/15 at 9:57 pm to crazy4lsu
I really do know what I'm talking about. Go ask 100 liberal arts majors if they know who DFW is and you will get close to 100 "No's". I'm not making this stuff up bruh.
Burroughs wouldn't get many more positive responses, but anyone who had a decent high school literature teacher would have made his students study the Beat gen. Would be mostly kids who read Kerouac's On the Road though...
Burroughs wouldn't get many more positive responses, but anyone who had a decent high school literature teacher would have made his students study the Beat gen. Would be mostly kids who read Kerouac's On the Road though...
Posted on 3/9/15 at 10:00 pm to CapitalCityDevil
quote:
I really do know what I'm talking about. Go ask 100 liberal arts majors if they know who DFW is and you will get close to 100 "No's". I'm not making this stuff up bruh.
I'm talking about it from the people who make up departments. DFW was probably one of the youngest people to ever be read in college. And I guarantee everyone who makes up the curriculum of contemporary literature knows who he is.
quote:
I really do know what I'm talking about. Go ask 100 liberal arts majors if they know who DFW is and you will get close to 100 "No's". I'm not making this stuff up bruh.
Why liberal arts? If we are speaking specifically about English departments, then I'd wager most upper level English students know and have read DFW. I assigned DFW to my comp students many years ago, and he was on the syllabus of many of instructors and professors there. If you enlarge the search to liberal arts, then you would be right.
Posted on 3/9/15 at 10:01 pm to theunknownknight
quote:
Do you look like a small contemplative boy IRL? Is that you in your avi??
You've literally sat in a booth on the same bench as me. Do you not remember?
Posted on 3/9/15 at 10:04 pm to mattz1122
quote:
Posted by mattz1122 He wasn't being serious. He's just some simpleton from N.LA.
Don't you guard a cash register at a chilies of some sort?
Posted on 3/9/15 at 10:05 pm to CapitalCityDevil
quote:
Burroughs wouldn't get many more positive responses, but anyone who had a decent high school literature teacher would have made his students study the Beat gen. Would be mostly kids who read Kerouac's On the Road though...
We were talking about complexity. Foster Wallace isn't among the most complex writing in the 20th century. My point is that he isn't anymore complex than other "Postmodern" writers, as he's a product of them. The fact that he produced a work like Infinite Jest so young is extremely impressive, but it's taking ideas that have existed for a long time, and using them in interesting ways.
Infinite Jest isn't Ulysses, nor is it The Tunnel, or The Recognitions, nor is DFW on the level of someone like James Baldwin, who is viciously underrated. DFW was smart, but he was apart of that crewe of Chabon, Franzen, Lenthem, Foer, and Zadie Smith among others who became famous precisely because they were young when they wrote long winding works. American literature has a fetish for young writers. The quality of the work speaks for itself, but all those writers became famous at the same time for that particularly reason (their youth).
Posted on 3/9/15 at 10:06 pm to CapitalCityDevil
No.
/thread
/thread
Posted on 3/9/15 at 10:09 pm to CapitalCityDevil
quote:
Compare the study of his work to that of traditional literary studies. It is practically nonexistent.
My guess is that 80-90% of the people on this website don't know who DFW is without googling the name.
He was a good, especially considering much of what is published now, but he's not Chaucer or Shakespeare. And you don't need to pay money to have someone explain him to you. Well Infinite Jest, maybe, but it would probably take a semester. The only thing I spent a whole semester on was the Divine Comedy and I needed that spoon fed to me.
Posted on 3/9/15 at 10:12 pm to CapitalCityDevil
quote:
I ask because the firm where I work employs interns, and most of them have zero idea of how to do anything before they get to us. (They are always recent graduates.)
My lib arts degree allowed me to become a jack of all trades. Not specific trades, mind you, but versatile enough to adapt to any working environment and be successful.
Posted on 3/9/15 at 10:13 pm to DrinkDrankDrunk
quote:
And you don't need to pay money to have someone explain him to you. Well Infinite Jest, maybe, but it would probably take a semester.
That's the thing. You've been reading postwar literature in America, DFW was nothing new. But he did make all those ideas palatable and readable for the average reader. Pyncheon is absolutely unreadable at times, as are many of the other authors of that era. The thing with DFW is that Infinite Jest is long as hell. It's hard to sustain interest for that long with a modern novel.
Posted on 3/9/15 at 10:14 pm to crazy4lsu
I only picked DFW as an example, and I assumed we both understood that anyone inside an English department would know famous authors.
I think that you are being a little narrow with your thoughts on DFW's youth when he wrote Infinite Jest. I agree with everything you've said in this comment to an extent. DFW is famous because his writing was brilliant. Also, using the argument of him being a product of "postmodern" writers as to say that he can't live up to them I believe to be foolish and extremely conservative.
I think that you are being a little narrow with your thoughts on DFW's youth when he wrote Infinite Jest. I agree with everything you've said in this comment to an extent. DFW is famous because his writing was brilliant. Also, using the argument of him being a product of "postmodern" writers as to say that he can't live up to them I believe to be foolish and extremely conservative.
Posted on 3/9/15 at 10:18 pm to crazy4lsu
quote:This statement is preposterous (said with a VERY British accent). The average reader wouldn't be able to finish Infinite Jest.
But he did make all those ideas palatable and readable for the average reader.
Pynchon is one of my favorite authors btw, Gravity's Rainbow is quite the work of art itself. Though his writing became less complex after it.
This post was edited on 3/9/15 at 10:19 pm
Posted on 3/9/15 at 10:19 pm to CapitalCityDevil
What does Dallas-Fort Worth have to do with liberal arts degrees?
Posted on 3/9/15 at 10:20 pm to CapitalCityDevil
Yep. Learned to read, write, think and communicate my recommendations. Harder to break through into Mgt with a liberal arts degree but once there it was a huge advantage. Went back later and got my MBA. Now have the best of both worlds.
Posted on 3/9/15 at 10:20 pm to CapitalCityDevil
Poly sci grad here who landed in business.
One major advantage my educational experience afforded me was the practice and repetition of long form writing. When you're constantly having to churn out 10 to 15 page theses, you tend to become a fairly effective writer. I've worked with a litany of business majors over the years who have horrible grammar and could barely string a sentence together via email, let alone create a document or brief.
One major advantage my educational experience afforded me was the practice and repetition of long form writing. When you're constantly having to churn out 10 to 15 page theses, you tend to become a fairly effective writer. I've worked with a litany of business majors over the years who have horrible grammar and could barely string a sentence together via email, let alone create a document or brief.
Posted on 3/9/15 at 10:20 pm to Epic Cajun
I was waiting for it. 
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