I want to study literature because I want to be a writer and

First of all, this is a pretty retarded plan as you no doubt know. Especially the combination of wanting to be a professional writer and wanting to study literature. Studying literature absolutely does not make you a better writer. You can get inspired from the work of other authors perfectly fine by reading them, and analyzing everything technically is actually more likely to make your prose formulaic and trite, if it has any effect on your skills to begin with. The only real upside is that you'll be around other people invested in literature and it will be on your mind a lot, and you can accomplish that in other ways. In turn you have little back up plan in case you decide you want to do something else anyway.

Getting published isn't the hard part, getting noticed and having a reliable audience is.

Anyway, if you're talented they will obviously like you, and even if you aren't particularly talented it never hurts to be among a minority of men, gives you an edge that you usually don't. The downside is that people talk and especially if there's not that many students and everyone knows each other, once you have a bad reputation it'll be hard to get with any of your classmates.

>>18089476
I didn't ask about that part, silly one.

>>18089477
Consider it free bonus advice. From an author no less. But good luck.

>>18089486
since it seems you're a real writer.

I'll ask this:

is translating a novel or poems a good writing exercise?

>>18089489
YES. It is. I translate poetry myself and it has helped me lots. Not necessarily to be a great poet, because a great poem is not simply emulated or understood by breaking it down into rhyme schemes or anything like that. But it's a way to channel your creative energy and keep yourself going without that blank page anxiety you can get from having to pull something out of thin air. It nurtures not your genius or inspiration but your craft, which you'll depend on whenever one of the former is lacking.

I should warn you however, that it takes more time than you'd expect to really develop a feeling for what makes an author particular in their own way, what exactly is their signature style down to the little nuances. So it's not something you can briefly do to get an understanding. You'll need to go all in and keep at it to really get to the heart of the texts.

But I would very much recommend it for the reasons I mentioned earlier. It's also an absolute delight to put so much thought/energy and devotion into work that is not yours, it's strangely freeing to be of service like that.

I'm going out for dinner with someone but I'll check up on the thread in a few hours, if you stay around for long and want to ask more, feel free to. I'll get to it eventually.

>>18089501
thanks.

I was trying to translate some shakespeare sonnets and it feels like doing a cover song.

It was very fun.

hoping to translate some faulkner today.

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116KB, 750x747px

>>18089459
Major in English instead.

A degree in English is 100x more useful than what a major in literature would become. You're still reading tomes and Shakespeare, but to potential employers, it's a lot more "glamorous." It shows them that you have mastery of the English language and literature, not just literature as a catch-all.

Granted, they're both pretty much a high risk to pursue, but there are far more opportunities for someone with a major in English.

I major in English, a friend majors in linguistics, and another majors in literature. The former and the latter have gotten tons of internships before they've even graduated with an AA degree, and the last still struggles with just getting by the curriculum.

If you don't care about any of that, then that means your heart is set on studying literature, and I respect someone who stays true to their heart.

As for the girls, theyre not much different than others.

>>18089459
literature student here. in england which might help for context.

a vast majority don't give a shit about the subject. it's just something to pick because reading books is a walk in the fucking park.

that said, university is a free for all of casual sex dude so that doesn't matter. go nuts.

>>18089459
I got a degree in English Literature. I enjoyed most of it. Most of the girls are dumb as fuck and at least at my school they were that good looking. Their favorite authors were people like JK Rowling and Nicholas Sparks.

>>18090234
I should also mention that if you push yourself and are talented, you can land a decent job. It took me a while, but I finally got a job as a Professional Writer mostly doing creative long-form documents. It's fun and challenging at the same time.

>>18089508
Favorite Shakespeare play?