literature: what for?

[underground]

ehrm. so it's like this: i recently realized i hadn't really been reading classics and ought to pick up at least one soon. but then it occurred to me: what for? what good will knowing every single of the world classics do to me?

i remember about two years ago, it was almost my goal to read every single Great Classics. i memorized poems and authors' birth/death years and considered majoring in english. but even then i thought that to have a degree in english would be impractical, cause the only job(s) you could get would be something like a teacher or a writer or an editor. if you're extremely lucky, you can actually live doing just that.

well, i'm majoring in science now, and can't help thinking i'm glad i didn't listen to my heart back then and majored in something i hated--but now love--instead. frankly, i really don't see any use in majoring in english. history is useful because you get to know how the world was created. psychology is useful because you get to know how the brain affects people's behavior. anthropology is useful because you get to know the different cultures of the world. but english. it's not really applicable to the world; the only people who'll know what faulkner writes and cares about it are also english/literature people. we can't really use his writing to describe/understand/help the world and whatnot.

so yeah. maybe it's just that my values have changed.

[mono]

Reading classics, I agree, can seem a trend that sometimes compels a person to ask: "why am I reading this, and what use does this have for the world?" While beginning college, I also debated between majoring in English and creative writing or something medical-related; now, I major in applied science (nursing), but still take courses in English and creative writing. At the same time, despite how busy nursing school can keep me, I try to get some leisure reading, often the classics.
To me, all of literature, philosophy, religious texts, and poetry seem an immense conversation, series of storytelling events, and exchange of ideas and morals through a mere combination of 26 letters and 10 numbers with added punctuation. I would also like to think that a piece of literature records some of the summarized beliefs and interests of a culture at that time; contemporary literature records ours, and classic literature records their values. While reading the classics, my fascination never ceases to know the common thought, morés, and behaviors, as compared to today's; having good conversations (such as in college classes) about literature naturally comes with reading this material. Literature and creative writing may not economically hold the best position for a college student's future, but it consists of a passion to contribute to these records of thought, values, and the like by either keeping the history alive, or writing, adding to the very large conversation.

the only people who'll know what faulkner writes and cares about it are also english/literature people. we can't really use his writing to describe/understand/help the world and whatnot.
Here, I happened to disagree. All of science has had huge contributions to the world (for better or worse), in describing, understanding, and helping the world concretely, but there seems a need to also describe, understand, and help the world abstractly and artistically. Literature, among the other arts, does this easily, helping one understand the past, our thoughts and valued origins, and combines well in the world with science, I think. Besides the physical world of atoms, planets, biological molecules, eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms, and cumulus clouds, there exists a world of thought. If such values of science and art can persist in one mind (such as René Descartes and Leonardo da Vinci), then, of course, they can harmonize as human interests, both contributing, in different ways, to human truth.

[ihrocks]

Science increases our knowledge of the universe in which we live.

Literature increases our knowledge of ourselves and gives us (we hope) the wisdom to use what science teaches us wisely.

Following the path of one frequently leads to the other until they reach a place where the lines blur; where we gaze at the stars with knowledge, understanding, and wonder.

Just the two cents of someone who isn't and never was an English major. :D

[baddad]

What use is literature? Read one of Mono's posts.....the boy is DEFINATELY increasing his communication skills..............and "Bravo" for it!!

[Nightshade]

Reading lit. classics are I thhink important (ahh thisis sounding like an essay! :eek:) because it gives people a common background culture thing to whats the word? relate to.

Look at it this way Shakespear gave the english laugue many expressions fro star crossed lover to green eyed monster etc etc
so on and so forth.

So maybe most literature classics arent quite at that point yet but Im sure Ive read somewhrere or heard people saything things like that person is a lorathio (is that spelt right?) and that is from some kind of book that I cant quite remebr the name of at this minute.
To ask for more sir is to ask for somthing you diserve and not get it , maybe even punished for asking.

See what I mean????
:goof:

[mono]

What use is literature? Read one of Mono's posts.....the boy is DEFINATELY increasing his communication skills..............and "Bravo" for it!!
Good grief, baddad! So much for my attempt of maintaining modesty today while blushing like this! :lol:
I have come accustomed to enjoying the posts of many others, however, definitely including yours.

Strangely, I began thinking of this question this morning, while signing on my computer, thinking there must seem more of a purpose of classical literature. If, indeed, classical literature (or "dead-people literature," a friend of mine calls it) outlines much of our past (culture, values, ethics, etc.), surely it has evolved, for better or worse, into what we read today. I doubt if horror writers like Stephen King would have had as much of an impact without those before him, like Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, and Mary Shelley.
Like crossing a water stream, the first brilliant classical writers set the first stones to crossing the stream, as we continue it, and begin it for the next generation of writers.