Suggested by Barbara H: I am paraphrasing from a friend’s Facebook wall her question:
“How would a teen-age boy who is going to work with his hands ever use Literature of England in his work?” The age-old “How am I going to use this in real life?” question. How would you answer it?
In normal conversation. Being able to converse about literature in general always lends a favorable impression when you are in an educated crowd. Also, stories have always carried the same core themes since stories themselves were invented. It’s documentation of human nature and the things that happen in every day situations–things that still happen today–losing a family member, staying loyal to a family crest or religion, getting married, trying to find one’s own individuality. All of those are things that still happen today–albeit in a modern situation. For me, as a writer, reading other works only serves to inspire me–leading to more stories and more adventures. I have always read a significant amount of words, period–I rarely ever consider something read to be a waste, so for English Lit? Read it, store it and remember it. You’d be surprised when you see parallels in your real life or how smoothly you can slip into a conversation and sound as smart as you really are.
