A short rant about college lit professors

[clem21]

OK, I'm feeling angry and I'm going to take it out in a healthy manner by ranting to you people. And if you know what's good for you you'll listen to every damn word.

So I got a 7 page Russian Literature paper back today which I had worked tirelessly on and the grade was a B-. Now I'm not so arrogant to say that I never get grades that low but, well, I never had before and I didn't think the paper was that bad. So, I went to speak to the professor. When I asked why had received such a poor grade she flipped through and said I had failed to explore the sexual themes in the novel.

The novel in question is Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky and I defy any of you to find one damn sexual theme in that book. It's just a f#cking crazy person killing people and whining to us about how awful it is for him to have to deal with it! Boo-frickin-Hoo, maybe I'll feel more sorry for the Girl who's skull you smashed open ya dumbass! But hey if there were sexual themes involved with the dead girl then, hell's bells maybe I do feel sorry for you. I also feel sorry for my professor for dreaming up this sexual crap. Is this was lit majors do all day? Interpret everything as promiscuous? Hmmm...12 Angry Men? Sex! Moby Dick? Sex! Harry Potter? Wizard Sex!

So damn all you stupid nut job lit professors who feel the need to overcompensate for the fact that you never got any in college because you were a nerdy english major, by loading every stinking scene with inappropriate and lewd behavior. I hate you all and you honestly disgust me.

Disclaimer: If any of you BBs are Lit Professors, I am not at all sorry for my harsh words nor do I take any of them back. I hate you. With a passion.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

[kayrharris]

I hope you feel better. Try not to dwell on it and know to look for the sex
in your next assignment.

[Bob78164]

I hope you feel better. Try not to dwell on it and know to look for the sex
in your next assignment.

Frankly, I think you should look for sex whether it's an assignment or not. --Bob

[TheConfessor]

Your teacher was obviously coming on to you. I say, "Go for it!"

[clem21]

Raskolnikov doesn't seem to be sexual, but Svidrigailov and Dunya certainly are. It's a minor theme.

Edited not because I regret what I said but because I regret the language I used.

[Bob Juch]

I deleted my post because I was going to do a longer one in the morning. I'm too tired now.

I have to wonder how I provoked such a strong response.

[clem21]

I deleted my post because I was going to do a longer one in the morning. I'm too tired now.

I have to wonder how I provoked such a strong response.

I'd chalk it up to me being in a severely bad mood and clearly looking for comforting and humorous responses as opposed to stupid replies that are frankly, pointless at this juncture and clearly done simply to show off your superior knowledge.

Save your longer post for someone who cares.

[Ritterskoop]

If I am supposed to nod and say "Poor, baby," then don't read the rest of this. If you are as genuinely pissed as you wrote, probably best to skip the rest, also. If you are interested in other opinions, read on. Sometimes here we will get sympathy and sometimes we get called on our childishness. Note I say "our" because it has happened to me also.

Sometimes your rant will invite other rants. Buckle your seat belt.





Is this the novel where the main character has a friend who used to be a prostitute? Might be a sexual theme indeed, if he is attracted to her but can't pursue it.



"It's just a f#cking crazy person killing people and whining to us about how awful it is for him to have to deal with it!"

This is known as an existential theme. It is a big deal. If the instructor did not explain it properly ahead of time, you might not have appreciated the abyss part, and leapt straight to the despair part. Even if she did, this kind of literature is designed to make you uncomfortable. If you aren't squirming, they didn't do their jobs very well.




I wonder was this the class you were in a few days ago when you posted on the board while you were in class and that you were bored? I almost replied to that one, but held back because folks here like you. But here's what I wanted to say: If you are not engaged in the course, do not attend class, and do not post online while you are in class. It is disrespectful to the instructor, the other students, and most of all, to yourself. You are a part of the academic process, and if you cannot or will not own that, you are better off, and so is everyone else, if you do not play at it half-assed. Clearly, some courses or teachers are boring. But that is their presentation. It is up to you to engage with it and make the learning your own.

[Ritterskoop]

I'd chalk it up to me being in a severely bad mood and clearly looking for comforting and humorous responses as opposed to stupid replies that are frankly, pointless at this juncture and clearly done simply to show off your superior knowledge.

Save your longer post for someone who cares.

Too bad I did not see this a few minutes ago.

[clem21]

If I am supposed to nod and say "Poor, baby," then don't read the rest of this. If you are as genuinely pissed as you wrote, probably best to skip the rest, also. If you are interested in other opinions, read on. Sometimes here we will get sympathy and sometimes we get called on our childishness. Note I say "our" because it has happened to me also.

Sometimes your rant will invite other rants. Buckle your seat belt.





Is this the novel where the main character has a friend who used to be a prostitute? Might be a sexual theme indeed, if he is attracted to her but can't pursue it.



"It's just a f#cking crazy person killing people and whining to us about how awful it is for him to have to deal with it!"

This is known as an existential theme. It is a big deal. If the instructor did not explain it properly ahead of time, you might not have appreciated the abyss part, and leapt straight to the despair part. Even if she did, this kind of literature is designed to make you uncomfortable. If you aren't squirming, they didn't do their jobs very well.




I wonder was this the class you were in a few days ago when you posted on the board while you were in class and that you were bored? I almost replied to that one, but held back because folks here like you. But here's what I wanted to say: If you are not engaged in the course, do not attend class, and do not post online while you are in class. It is disrespectful to the instructor, the other students, and most of all, to yourself. You are a part of the academic process, and if you cannot or will not own that, you are better off, and so is everyone else, if you do not play at it half-assed. Clearly, some courses or teachers are boring. But that is their presentation. It is up to you to engage with it and make the learning your own.

This is a fair argument but allow me to answer.

Firstly, the essay assigned was about the main character's internal battle and conflict involving his philosophical beliefs. Yes he did befriend a prostitute who later became an integral part of him, but nowhere in the novel can you find him internally ever even referencing sex. I have found in this class time and time again the professor finding promiscuity where I would never have believed it possible.

This is not the class I post in, I need to concentrate in this class. The one I post in is a Political class on Congress which is fairly basic. This is my major and my specialty and to be blunt I could get an A+ in this course without ever showing up. Ah, so why don't I? Because my professor has an attendance policy that will take you down a full grade if you don't. So that is why I come. As for the academic process bit, permit me to politely disagree with you. I don't know when you attended college but in today's classrooms nearly every student is accompanied by a laptop or electronic device of some sort. I could make an educated guess that 80 percent of the class is either texting or surfing the web at any given time. That's just how it is. Is that disrespectful? Perhaps. But no one including myself makes it at all obvious what they are doing despite jokes I may say to the contrary. There is no disturbance involved.

It's all fine and good to say that learning is important and you should pick up every grain you should, and maybe that's ideal. It is also unrealistic. Almost all students, including myself, see college as a means to an end. So I will not waste my time and energy concentrating on some things that I do not need or already know for the sake of learning. And I will take every advantage I can short of cheating, lying or plagiarizing that will get me a better grade. If that means writing a paper that caters exclusively to what I think a professor believes and not what I do then so be it. If that means chatting to the professor after class because I think he or she enjoys it and likes me better because of it then I'll do that too. If you view that as immature I understand. I'm simply telling you the truth and hoping you respect me for it.

Also please note that your response contained constructive criticism and made me think. I respect that and will answer in kind. I will not do the same for what I believe was blatant showing off.

[Ritterskoop]

I have found in this class time and time again the professor finding promiscuity where I would never have believed it possible.

That happens. People see what they expect to see, and are befuddled when everyone else doesn't see it.

As for the academic process bit, permit me to politely disagree with you. I don't know when you attended college but in today's classrooms nearly every student is accompanied by a laptop or electronic device of some sort. I could make an educated guess that 80 percent of the class is either texting or surfing the web at any given time. That's just how it is. Is that disrespectful? Perhaps. But no one including myself makes it at all obvious what they are doing despite jokes I may say to the contrary. There is no disturbance involved.

I appreciate polite disagreement. I revel in it. I love that you will work at it with me.

So what is the point of attending if you are not participating? To fulfill someone else's attendance policy? If you think the policy is dumb you must stand up for yourself, and take the grade you earn by not attending. That is authenticity. That approach I would respect.

If you view that as immature I understand. I'm simply telling you the truth and hoping you respect me for it.

I appreciate genuineness and authenticity. I am reading now that our brains are not fully developed until around age 25, sometimes 28 for males. So our ability to see long-term value is not fully developed. We are focused on what we can get right now, and not thinking clearly about who we want to be in ten years. I get it.

Also please note that your response contained constructive criticism and made me think. I respect that and will answer in kind. I will not do the same for what I believe was blatant showing off.

Most of us have a similar reaction to BobJuch. He does not understand that we are here for more than correcting each other. But it's funny, when people correct him, he doesn't hear it. He would be on lots of foe lists if he wasn't a moderator or admin or whatever. He knows that but it doesn't matter to him, so I am not revealing any big secret.

I don't know when you attended college

Oh, this is the part you will love. My part-time job is ethics instructor at UNC Charlotte. Nearly all the learning in my classes come through discussion, so I too have an attendance policy. But it's fairly generous, and everyone knows the rules up front. Last semester I gave 27 As and one B, so it's not a big burden.

So part of my speech about respecting the process comes from that angle. But another part comes from my having just completed a second Master's degree, which followed a B.A. and that first M.A., all while I worked a full-time job at night. I say that not to pat myself on the back but to show you what is possible if you own this path. If it is merely a means to an end for you, that's fine. But it is possible to be fully engaged in it while you're there, and not have it be throw-away learning.

Holler if you get to do any more existentialism. It's my favorite.

There's even existential ethics, if you can believe that.

Peace.

[clem21]

Thank you.
Thank you for understanding and pointing out things for me to consider in an extremely pleasant way.
One thing I want to mention is the fact that as much as I'd like to stand up to the attendance policy, I can't afford the GPA hit I would be forced to take. Grad school is too competitive. In this point I am forced to follow my self-interest rather than do the honorable thing.

Overall you seem like a wonderful person and I can see why your discussions probably do not have many attendance problems I think I now see part of why others speak so highly of you.

Good night and Good Weekend

[KillerTomato]

A billion years ago when I was in college, I had an American Lit class that (as an Engineering major) I put off and put off until I couldn't put it off anymore. Basically, the course was on short fiction, and we covered everything from Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" to the Nick Adams stories to O. Henry. Rather than a final exam, we had to do a final paper by choosing one author that we'd studied, and read either 3 other stories by that author, or one novel, and do a critical essay on it.

Well, I happened to have an old paperback of Hemingway's "Islands in the Stream" sitting around that I had never read before, and he's generally a quick read, so I chose that. And frankly, like 99% of Hemingway's work, I absolutely hated it (I had a bad experience with him in high school when we did "A Farewell to Arms"). But liking the book wasn't a requirement, and I figured I'd use my dislike of Hemingway's writing style to my advantage, and wrote a nice long paper that (among other things) pointed out that, as he'd offed himself before really finishing "Islands," the novel lacked polish and closure, and would have been much better had he stuck around and really finished it.

Now, I had an A-/B+ going into this final paper, and the instructor and I got along well....until he read this paper. It turned out that he'd done his PhD dissertation on (you guessed it) "Islands in the Stream". It was one of his favorite books. Boy, I wish I'd known that before writing my paper....I ended up with a C+ in the class.

And I've never read any Hemingway since.

"Crime and Punishment," OTOH, I loved.

[Rafferbee]

I had an English paper who I always got bad grades from. He wanted us to write our papers "like writing a letter to a friend" instead of the normal essay format. Finally I gave up and wrote him a paper like I wrote for my other English professor that year, who was very traditional in his expectations. I got an A- on it. He wrote "A little formal, but good work." Aah! I envy my brother. He's a math major, and always knows exactly where he lost points. To fulfill his humanities requirement, he took logic classes in philosophy. Whereas to fulfill my science requirement, I took Psychology.

[gsabc]

Sad to say, there always seems to be one professor during one's college period where nothing you do will satisfy them short of agreeing with everything they say. Even when they're full of crap.

BD's taught philosophy. Mine, all those many moons ago, was a poli sci prof who made sure we knew that he frequently advised at the U.N, and that he was the teacher and we were the students, so he obviously knew better. Ghu forbid you should disagree with him, no matter how cogent your arguments. By far my worst grade in college.

Take it, let it go, find sex in everything you read for this prof. As Tom Lehrer (look him up; well worth the effort) once said: "When correctly viewed, everything is lewd. I could tell you things about Peter Pan, and the Wizard of Oz? There's a dirty old man!"

[MarleysGh0st]

Wow! The things I miss while I'm sleeping!

I'm just going to sit quietly and watch the fireworks on this one.

[littlebeast13]

Wow! The things I miss while I'm sleeping!

I'm just going to sit quietly and watch the fireworks on this one.

Didn't Fanny tell you to drag your butt into chat?

You missed a hell of a night.....

lb13

[MarleysGh0st]

Wow! The things I miss while I'm sleeping!

I'm just going to sit quietly and watch the fireworks on this one.

Didn't Fanny tell you to drag your butt into chat?

You missed a hell of a night.....

lb13

I guess I did.

My mind was racing through lots of different things while I was trying to sleep. I thought it was because of reading PSM's thread about her Mom, but maybe I was picking up chat vibes because I didn't wear my AFDB to bed.

[geoffil]

I will give my two cents about web surfing in class. I took a class this fall and a few students surfed on the web during class and wrote emails during other student's presentations. The first time this happened I was aghast and horrified. How rude. I chatted with other students about this and found I was the only one who thought it was rude.
One girl was voting on a site about which t-shirt design was the best. Another guy actually was watching a baseball game. I still think it is wrong, but I let it go. There was nothing I could do and the professor saw it and let them all do it. This is the same professor that gave me a B plus on my Millionaire paper and presentation. This lowered by grade to an A minus which is a 3.7 not a 4.0. Obviously not a fan.

I could have surfed the web, passed the time more quickly (the class is 4 hours long) and still gotten an A minus.

I have worked as a Technical Writer and I have found that everyone has their own version of what is great writing. My motto is "if that is what they, that is what they get" no matter how awful the document turns out to be. The client has a form to fill out for each review so we can show our boss that we did exactly what they wanted. We laugh and move on.

[littlebeast13]

I'm trying to remember if my college days were in the mid 90's or the mid 60's.....

Threads like this sometimes make me wonder.....

lb13

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar -- attributed to S. Freud.

[Appa23]

I am curious if you heard from the Administration or "TPTB" when you gave 27 A's and only 1 B (with nothing lower) in a class. It would make your class sound like an easy one.

Although, I wonder if it is like a Poli Sci class that I took my second year in college. The professor was a odd, intellectual woman who seemed forever stuck in the 1960s. In a class of no more than 15 students, everyone but one earned an A. The administration asked that she re-grade the class, as it did not conform to proper grade distribution. She brought in copies of everyone's papers over the semester (at least 5 for each student) and the final papers. She demanded that TPTB show her where she needed to downgrade anyone. She also noted that this was the Honors class for the Poli Sci department and was filled with Seniors and a few Juniors that were supposed to be the "best and brightest".

They backed down real quickly.

[TheCalvinator24]

I am curious if you heard from the Administration or "TPTB" when you gave 27 A's and only 1 B (with nothing lower) in a class. It would make your class sound like an easy one.

Although, I wonder if it is like a Poli Sci class that I took my second year in college. The professor was a odd, intellectual woman who seemed forever stuck in the 1960s. In a class of no more than 15 students, everyone but one earned an A. The administration asked that she re-grade the class, as it did not conform to proper grade distribution. She brought in copies of everyone's papers over the semester (at least 5 for each student) and the final papers. She demanded that TPTB show her where she needed to downgrade anyone. She also noted that this was the Honors class for the Poli Sci department and was filled with Seniors and a few Juniors that were supposed to be the "best and brightest".

They backed down real quickly.

When I taught in Community College, it was expected that the grades would be high. There was an attitude of "Hey, this is only community college. You shouldn't expect real college level work."

I caught a little heat for my grading.

[WheresFanny]

I am curious if you heard from the Administration or "TPTB" when you gave 27 A's and only 1 B (with nothing lower) in a class. It would make your class sound like an easy one.

Although, I wonder if it is like a Poli Sci class that I took my second year in college. The professor was a odd, intellectual woman who seemed forever stuck in the 1960s. In a class of no more than 15 students, everyone but one earned an A. The administration asked that she re-grade the class, as it did not conform to proper grade distribution. She brought in copies of everyone's papers over the semester (at least 5 for each student) and the final papers. She demanded that TPTB show her where she needed to downgrade anyone. She also noted that this was the Honors class for the Poli Sci department and was filled with Seniors and a few Juniors that were supposed to be the "best and brightest".

They backed down real quickly.

What kind of marks did you get in your "Subtlety and Humility" class?

[littlebeast13]

I am curious if you heard from the Administration or "TPTB" when you gave 27 A's and only 1 B (with nothing lower) in a class. It would make your class sound like an easy one.

Although, I wonder if it is like a Poli Sci class that I took my second year in college. The professor was a odd, intellectual woman who seemed forever stuck in the 1960s. In a class of no more than 15 students, everyone but one earned an A. The administration asked that she re-grade the class, as it did not conform to proper grade distribution. She brought in copies of everyone's papers over the semester (at least 5 for each student) and the final papers. She demanded that TPTB show her where she needed to downgrade anyone. She also noted that this was the Honors class for the Poli Sci department and was filled with Seniors and a few Juniors that were supposed to be the "best and brightest".

They backed down real quickly.

What kind of marks did you get in your "Subtlety and Humility" class?

Straight 's......

lb13