On being an English major

This comic has been floating around various agents’ and writers’ twitter feeds, and I thought it completely captured the glamorous life of an English major.

I had it doubly good, though: I was an English and Religious Studies major. And yeah, that two grand a year I got for my grad school work-study was the high point of my career. (It was even more fun than washing cars.)

Since we’ve been kind of serious here lately and that’s not why you’re reading my blog, I figured I’d share some of my glorious artwork, drawn during my freshman year (it will be noted that at the time I was still a Natural Resources major). I bring you an unsung super-hero: Major English.

I’ve been thinking about Major English ever since I first saw the cartoon on Screwy Decimal.

I would like to note the mountains of hair, brought to you courtesy of every Marvel Comics superheroine (is that a word?) and the 1980s. Apparently English Majors require gallons of “Stiff Stuff.”  Nowadays I think the secret pocket for rejection letters is kind of funny, and the Jackie Collins reference dates it even more than the hair.

And now you know why I’m not illustrating my own stories, too! Because while I switched from Natural Resources into English and then added Religion, I never even once considered becoming an Art major.

Happy Friday!

0 Comments

  1. College & Other Pesky Things

    This is cute =]

    1. philangelus

      Thanks!

  2. Monica

    Where would we be without English and Religious Studies majors who bring out the grammatical/theological side of all of us?!

    1. philangelus

      You might be reading the Yarn Harlot? 🙂

      Actually, the theology of grammar is a topic I don’t want to touch.

  3. Pat

    The fun of being an English major is catching the literary references in Dorothy Sayers novels. And scoffing at the people who think Chaucer wrote “Old English.” Who needs money?

    1. philangelus

      Well, most of us. 😉

  4. MyBrokenFiat

    I dunno if you’ve ever seen Avenue Q (Broadway Musical) but their song “BA in English” resonated with me as much as this HIGHLY satiric comic. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

    “What do ya do with a B.A. in English? What is my life going to be? Four years of college and plenty of knowledge have earned me this useless degree! I can’t pay the bills yet, ’cause I have no skills yet. The world is a big scary plaaaace! But somehow I can’t shake the feeling I might make a difference to the human race!”

    Ahhh well. I doubled English and Communication (Public Relations). I wouldn’t have traded it for the world (‘cept maybe Theology… I loved me some Theology).

    1. philangelus

      I did the whole religious studies major in my senior year because the major didn’t exist until then. So this other woman and I were the first two RS majors, and we were both double majors with English.

      What I did discover though was that until I actually lived and matured, I had all the necessary equipment to write well, but I didn’t have the perception to be able to write truly.

  5. The Sojourner

    “I had it doubly good, though: I was an English and Religious Studies major.”

    Journalism and theology here. WHERE ARE MY MILLIONS!?

    1. philangelus

      Wherever they are, I suspect mine are right there beside them. 🙂