Anyone else feel intimidated by their literature professor?

>>9492581
That's a good sign, really. The deciding factor is whether you can turn that intimidation into inspiration.

>>9492581
Most of my lit professors have been female, and I usually feel both intimidated by and attracted to them.

Like there at least three I've had that I would definitely fuck.

The intimidation has faded slightly now that I'm in my final year.

>>9492588
I'm certainly inspired to improve, but I feel that no matter what I do I will never get to my professor's level.

>>9492608
>I'm certainly inspired to improve, but I feel that no matter what I do I will never get to my professor's level.

It's their full time job to just think, research and write about literature, and likely they've been doing that full time for many years. If you did that too, you'd probably get pretty good at it.

>>9492581
>literature professor

do Americans really do this?

>>9492617
>do Americans really do this?
These exist in every western country you dolt.

>>9492608
this is what I felt recurrently from primary school to probably about mid-late university

in the first few grades, the sixth graders were alien, superior creatures whose thoughts and nature I couldn't fathom and couldn't understand what being them was like, how they could be what they were or how they could do all the super hard sixth grade maths and science and so on.

When I got to sixth grade, what I was doing was normal, not impressive. However, the seventh grade, aka highschool, became the new ne plus ultra. I was sure that the work they did was too advanced for my puny mind. And so it went looking upward every grade, looking from twelfth grade to university, looking from first year university to the next, and so on.

Even peripherally you can get that sense; a successful member of management for some corporate job you just joined; initally you hardly know what it is they do. By the time you attain their role you realise how perfunctory it was and how silly it was to be impressed by their position or status.

At various points I simply realised that I was basically attaining all the states I looked at as unfathomable and, in 9 odd years of study various jobs, observed that most of these states don't require some salience or impressive intelligence. There's generally very little difference, in terms of the constitution or potential of a person, between a professor and a student, or a junior and a manager, except the time they've spent pursuing these knowledge or status states they're in, and that time investment seems like a categorical barrier.

No doubt your professors are smart but they have spent a lot of time reading, writing, talking and communicating literary ideas. Most of the time, you would sound and talk like them had you also done so.

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>>9492581
I stopped being intimidated when I realised that many of the professors knew a lot about their subject, as you'd expect, but were incredibly dim in other areas.
Actually, it was quite infuriating since they saw themself as intelligent and therefore right by default.
The amount of times fellow students have tried to shut me up because, "the professor said so", even though what they said wasn't related to the subject they specialised in!
Bah.

>>9492581
Profesor

>99% of the time it's a leftist woman
>keeps shoving down anti-Trump propaganda down your throat
>reads mostly po-mo
>every lecture involves female studies readings

Yeah, no. I liked maybe one prof, the rest were garbage.

>>9493515
Go to a better university

>>9493514
>I realised that many of the professors knew a lot about their subject, as you'd expect, but were incredibly dim in other areas.
I haven't had too many professors who'd I'd call generally dim, but there's definitely a high degree of specialization. Similarly, what helped me get over the feeling of "intimidation," especially literature profs, was presenting myself as having a specific area of study or interest which colored my work. When they see that, they think that you really care, and start to treat you more as an equal.

>>9492581
The reason the professor is there is to teach you both how to read critically and then how to articulate those thoughts. Intimidation is natural, but better if it can become respect.

But I'll let you in on the dark secret that's not supposed to leave the department: they don't have encyclopaedic knowledge, often don't read the texts that they're teaching (if they've taught it before), is trained to read and see the things that professors want you to see, and has gained the vocab through years of exposure to the jargon of the profession.

While it takes a lot of effort and intelligence to complete the dissertation and do the work to become a professor, the knowledge is very narrow and specialized. There are not many great generalists anymore, the Northrop Fryes who can speak knowledgably on almost any literature. Many many professors feel like charlatans and are often anxious of being called out for their ignorance on something else. The classroom is designed to make the professor seem like the holder of all knowledge, but they're not. Many of them are insecure egomaniacs who crave appreciatoion, but also enjoy genuine (appropriate) relationships with their students. If you can conquer the feeling of intimidation and speak with your professor, ask for help with the course, or inquire about why they enjoy literature or how they ended up where they are, it helps to humanize them.

That said, there are also complete assholes who dislike teaching and see their students as a hindrance to their all-important research getting done, but in my experience these are much rarer. You'll probably intuitively sense whether your prof is one of these.

t. tenure-track assistant prof

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>>9493623
>appreciatoion

>>9493666
>beastly trips
A slip of the key, son. Go easy on me.

The human mind is a machine that magnifies. Whatever you put into yourself, you let out time ten. When you've lived a reclusive life like me going on 5 years or more you begin to unravel these fragile nuances of the brain. HP Lovecraft was unto something when he said read the Bible to expand your thesaurus. It's the best source of knowledge to start with. Then you can move unto other authors like Poe.

>>9492581
Most professors have been studying and publishing for at least decade. Of course he will come up with better things than you, he has seen a lot more during those years.

The thing is to not try too hard: the professor don't expect you to write something at the level of a journal article. You're a student, you're still learning.

>>9492603
>being intimidated by women
That's why you didn't fuck them.