English for the Sake of English
Finding value in literature, writing, and the Arts
When I was an undergraduate student, people were constantly asking me questions about what I wanted for my future. Inevitably, they’d ask me what I was studying. When I’d respond with “English”, they would usually assume that I wanted to be a teacher. If not, they asked me what anyone could possibly do with an English degree.
“Why study English?”
It’s a fair question, but in order to answer it, you have to examine why you chose to attend college in the first place.
When we hear politicians talk about higher education, they are usually discussing it within the context of the job market or our country’s ability to compete in global industry. Obviously, we need well-trained people to fill specific positions and we need brilliant thinkers to innovate for the future. There are plenty of smart people going to college, but not all of them are majoring in math and science. Many of them are pursuing the Arts and Humanities.
If you went to college because you wanted to make money after you graduated, you probably didn’t major in one of the Arts. You might have chosen the arts if you were pursuing something vocational like dance or music, but there’s also a good chance that you had no clue what your future career was going to look like. Your advisor probably told you that this was okay, because it is. To an outsider, it would seem that many of us settled on English because we didn’t know what else to do. Supposedly, we were all a bunch of directionless layabouts and English was the easiest path to a liberal arts degree. I don’t think this is true.
I used to tell people that I chose to study English because I got an A on an essay I wrote about Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Excellent grades were a rare occurrence for me, so when I got the A, I took it as a sign of what I was meant to pursue. That, and I was in the middle of my sophomore year. I still hadn’t declared a major yet. I was decent at writing, apparently. So I picked English.
But I didn’t go to college to figure out what I wanted my career to be about. I went to college to figure out what I wanted my life to be about. I wasn’t ready to stop exploring. My first years in college were an experiment, the goal of which was to determine what I valued. As it turned out, I valued language, literature, and creative expression. I valued art.
There are plenty of practical applications for an English degree that don’t involve teaching. You’d be surprised by the number of professionals out there are who cannot write. Companies are in dire need of competent writers. You can make a decent living as a copywriter, editor, or technical writer. Just ask my twin brother. And if writing isn’t your forte, pursuing an English degree is still a great way to train yourself how to think critically. There are plenty of jobs that you could thrive in.
Most of us don’t study English because of the promise of a steady paycheck. We study English because we love books and we want to know how they work. We study English because we have a story to tell. We study English because we think that “poet” should be considered a legitimate job title. We study English because we believe there is something inherently valuable about language, even when it isn’t being used to persuade someone to buy something or vote for a specific candidate in an election.
Language can be a conduit for beauty and joy.
When we think of “Art” in the broad sense, it includes writing, painting, sculpture, dance, music, even cooking. “Beauty” is a subjective term, so it can be applied to almost any object depending on who is doing the viewing. A beautiful piece of writing might not put food on the table (unless you are lucky enough to be a famous author) but you should still invest time in your writing. You don’t have to be the next Hemingway. We already had one. We don’t need another. If something you’ve written allows a reader to think differently or experience pleasure, you’ve honored your study of English and done the human race a service as well.
If only 3 people read your work and find beauty and meaning in it, the effort was worth it — even if only one person reads it; even if only you read it. If you don’t want to write, read! Read everything you can get your hands on and start conversations. Read the things that bring you joy. The English language isn’t a luxury commodity anymore. It’s no longer the sole property of stuffy intellectuals in powdered wigs. Almost everyone can create and appreciate literary art. And everyone should, but in order to understand how art works, we need institutions and formalized methods of inquiry. We need art and English programs in high schools and we need Arts departments in colleges.
No one reads Immanuel Kant for fun.
College isn’t just an apparatus for pumping out engineers, scientists, and business professionals. College is where we go to try to understand the human experience. Some of us will take on a large amount of debt to be part of the conversation. Hopefully we will make it out of school with a degree, but we might not have a career lined up. Tormented, we will convince ourselves that we wasted a great deal of time and money pursuing the Arts and the benefits turned out to be nil. I don’t believe this is true, either.
The benefit is in the conversation.
Somebody needs to be talking about Post-colonialism and Queer Theory. Somebody needs to be fascinated by the ways we create meaning. These discussions need to take place somewhere. I think an ill-perceived lack of marketable skills is a small price to pay for being one step closer to understanding the human condition.
After college you can do whatever is necessary to pay the rent, but keep reading, writing, asking questions, and producing art. If you do that, you’ll never waste your English degree, even if you are never published. Even if all you do for the rest of your life is post silly essays on Medium for free.
And if you can’t think of anything else to do, take out another loan and head off to graduate school so you can keep putting off your major life decisions. Carry eight-pound books around all day. Talk about famous authors like you know them on a first name basis. Learn about Cultural Relativism for another two years, even if doing so is completely impractical, because somebody must. In the long run, we’ll all be better off because of it. You’ll see.
Thank you for reading! if you enjoyed this piece, please recommend and share it so I can feel warm and fuzzy and accomplished inside.
