Quote:
Originally Posted by E. Shaun Russell
none of them have had the balance of enjoyability and practicality.
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Shaun, my dear, deluded Shaun,
I love your enthusiasm. It has a rare and naive charm. It really is heartening to see.
I suggest you walk down to your local english department. Find an experienced professor who's holding office hours. Ask him about "enjoyability." If you want a real earful, ask *her*. There's a reason they call it the Anguish Department. Now go look in the parking lot, and see what kind of cars they drive.
Every english professor worth his or her salt discourages anyone who wishes to go into the profession. "Go back to your farm, and work the earth" is a standard line. "Go home and work for your father's construction business" also has a good track record. Or, if the professor is a Zappa fan, she'll quote Cosmic Debris: "You could make more money as a butcher, so don't waste your time..."
This isn't recent, it's a centuries old tradition. The ones who weren't cut out for the field take the advice. The ones who are destined for it won't listen, no matter how discouraging the people they respect are. I've discouraged every one who's asked. A few didn't listen, and they've written me later, thanking me for at least warning them.
So here's my best warning: to play this game, you need a doctorate. It should be in rhetoric (literature is vanity). To get a doctorate in rhetoric, you have to love the field, really love arguing about Cicero and Quintillian and Pierre de la Ramee and Kenneth Burke, late into the night. It's fascinating stuff. But if you're starting from a B.A., you're looking at seven to nine years of poverty.
At at the end of that? Maybe there'll be a job, if you're lucky. Somewhere else: Wyoming, central Alabama. You'll start as an assistant at about 40K. After seven years, you might make associate, with a 5K raise.
Need to hear more? There's plenty of other things where those came from. Can I introduce you to the joys of the curriculum committee?
Best,
Bill