Too rational versus too selfish
It is not uncommon, especially in the area of the humanities, to hear a student commenting how rigid one's course of curriculum is. In particular, how the mechanical and over-rigorous studying of texts distances one's passion in the subject. For how is one going to appreciate the beauty of a poem when one has to consciously look into it for deeper and more profound meanings?
To some extent, I sympathise with such concerns. The memorisation of history didn't make my study of it fulfilling nor enjoyable at all. However I am of the viewpoint that such studies are more beneficial than not, to the extent I feel they are necessary when one undertakes a subject on any level. I speak only from a personal ground. I used to dislike Jane Austen very much. Actually, I still do. But it was only through analysing her texts from school - being force-fed those analysis, in fact - that I began to appreciate her qualities as a writer, notably the subtlety she uses. In other words, it was only through the mechanical studying of Jane Austen that I realised the beauty of her work.
When we talk about studying a subject I think what we often detest is having to write a formal essay on it after we read it, the same way how a movie critic has to go home on the night of watching a movie and churn out his piece in time for the papers the following day. Maybe it's our own laziness that we should frown upon, our own reluctance to engage the text in a purposeful, academic manner.
To some extent, I sympathise with such concerns. The memorisation of history didn't make my study of it fulfilling nor enjoyable at all. However I am of the viewpoint that such studies are more beneficial than not, to the extent I feel they are necessary when one undertakes a subject on any level. I speak only from a personal ground. I used to dislike Jane Austen very much. Actually, I still do. But it was only through analysing her texts from school - being force-fed those analysis, in fact - that I began to appreciate her qualities as a writer, notably the subtlety she uses. In other words, it was only through the mechanical studying of Jane Austen that I realised the beauty of her work.
When we talk about studying a subject I think what we often detest is having to write a formal essay on it after we read it, the same way how a movie critic has to go home on the night of watching a movie and churn out his piece in time for the papers the following day. Maybe it's our own laziness that we should frown upon, our own reluctance to engage the text in a purposeful, academic manner.
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