English Major Apology

Here is my apology for my English major; hope you guys enjoy and find some common ground on why we as English majors are blessed.

English Major Apology

Literature is in all things; it critics the life we live and the world around us. All the other
fields of study in this world have only one thing in common; there is literature in them. There
is even literature within the equation for a math problem or a hypothesis of a science experiment; it is not limited to just the liberal arts. This is why I love literature and choose to study this fascinating field. Nothing in this world speaks more to my soul and my mind than literature does. Literature, and especially poetry, are sublime to me and I am never ashamed to admit to sharing Longinus’ attitude towards literature. An enlightening passage in a book, comic ironies within written and spoken dialogue, a metaphor and simile drenched sonnet; all these are
occurrences in which a little nerve in the back of my head twitches at just the right angle so as to
cause me great scholarly pleasure and even a little giddiness at times.

In my opinion, literature contains the greatest reservoir of knowledge that a
human can tap at any one time; within all the texts of the world lies the secret of man and his
connection with the world around him. Literature asks all the most crucial and convoluted
questions about life and often offers several sublime ways of living life and acquiring knowledge.
Most of all, I love literature because it allows me to be somewhere else and experience that place
on my own time. My life likes to be hectic at times so a nice dose of vitamin S ( S for sublime of
course ) can transform my stressed out and exhausted mind into a soothing state of bliss and
intellectual stimulation; any book will do. Where else in this world do you have the power to
transport to a different reality simply by looking on the written page? Although literature is a bountiful source of entertainment and pleasure, it is also a viable intellectual tool that one can use to increase the quality of their existence and understanding of their existence.

All men share a common fear of being forgotten; men strive for immortality. Death is a
uncertain end, and all men also share a common desire to be remembered from generation to
generation for their accomplishments and greatness of character. Since there is no true method of fully achieving immortality, we must be immortal on the written page. Works of literature far
outlive their authors and are constantly studied by new generations of humans. Even though my
body will fail and I may fade from this Earth, the memory of my existence, quality of life, and the
countless amounts of intellectual expressions will be recorded on paper and I will, in a sense, be
immortal. This is what literature can do for me, but what can I do with literature?

Perhaps the most important and powerful use of literature is that of logos. The power to
create through the agency of the word is truly the crowning achievement of literature. A small
brown book with a rough cover is lying on the ground and a man walks by and picks it up. Upon
opening the book the man discovers that all the pages are blank; this is his book and he can write, and in a sense, create whatever his heart and mind desire. In literature, there are no restrictions, perimeters, ranges, or any other restraining nuisances that may hamper the explosive productivity of the creator; the world is your sandbox and you already have all the necessary tools in order to form it as you see fit. Poetry is by far the best use of logos and is considered to be an ultimate form of creation. The Greek word for poet is poesis, which means “the maker”; the world that poetry creates is that of an imitation, a sort of “golden world”; the poet seems to improve on nature. When reading poetry, I often feel the world slow down and my mind begin to clear from the everyday floods of stress and tiresome schedules. It is a meditative tool for me to escape the real world and fall into a much more interesting world. I am a song writer and amateur poet and have written a good amount of both thought-provoking songs about life and the intricacies therein, and vivid poems about anything from love to the cyclical ritual of the sun and its connection with humans in physical and symbolic ways. Lyrics in music are poetry to me and there is something very enjoyable about analyzing the inner meanings of the song and its creators. Both song and poetry have the ability to contain immensely important passages known as touchstones.

These touchstones are merely passages from literature that seem to bring deep meaning
and emotional response to the reader. Whatever the touchstone might be, it is very important to it’s owner and can greatly influence their life; no other field of study has this power. A good
example is the posting of favorite quotes around a classroom or bedroom. I put famous quotes
on my walls to give me short bursts of intellectual pleasure and to help explain life. When I
become an English teacher I will hang enlightening quotes on my walls in the hopes that one of
my students is inspired and their life is forever changed because of a simple quote. Literature is
the only subject that is impacted my life on a noticeable and beneficial scale. Many of my
colleagues have referred to English as being a “useless” major with less worth than other fields;
to this statement I severely disagree. The worth of literature is far beyond any other field with
regards to worldly understanding and self-exploration; I can safely say that although I use, refer to, and produce literature everyday, the information that I have accumulated from all other fields of study is rarely of use to me. I do not apologize for being an English major, I revel in it.