Keep or Drop This Class?

[Rev. Rye]

"To The Lighthouse" is considered to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, by an important author. There's a strong psychological dimension to it,

There's a strong psychological dimension in a lot of the books I read, from Dostoevsky to Bukowski to Bret Easton Ellis to James Joyce. I don't have a problem with any of these writers.
Also, I'm reminded of something my first writing teacher told me: Just because someone's a great writer doesn't there's any guarantee that they're any good.

which is probably why your teacher is having you write journal entries

I've already taken and completed (with an "A" both times, no less) two courses in the "Critical Reading and Writing" category. I had to write journals for both of these classes. The basic problem is that usually, there's some discussion that takes up much of the class time; instead, we're reading the book aloud and taking time out of class to write about it, with a possibility that we'd read what we'd write aloud; we wouldn't discuss it further.

- the point of the book is introspection rather than plot.

And unfortunately, in this case, the introspection isn't really that interesting. We spend several pages on one character trying to somehow get from "P" to "Q", with Woolf never letting us know or care what "P" and "Q" represent. Jim Thompson, of all writers, knew that if we're going to enjoy a book that is mostly introspection, one should at least make it interesting.

But it sounds like you're closed to getting anything from the discussion.

As mentioned before, there really isn't much of a discussion. If there was, I'd at least get something out of it. And yet, amazingly, I still don't think I'm totally closed off from Virginia Woolf yet; maybe if we'd been reading Mrs. Dalloway, I wouldn't be dropping the class, and maybe even with a competent teacher, To The Lighthouse might actually be bearable.

Maybe the problem is that you are boring, not the book. It doesn't sound like you're cut out to be a writer. I suggest you switch to vocational training in HVAC repair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImgHoGgCn8U

[Tino]

And plenty of music critics think the Beatles were fucking awesome and I think they're shite.

Your making the same error as Rev. Rye. You don't need to personally enjoy something to study and appreciate the importance of it. You can't deny the significance of the Beatles to music and culture. Your taste in music is apparently awful, but you can still understand the importance of the Beatles in the history of music.

[thesummerqueen]

Right. I can appreciate people's opinion of Thoreau or their unfortunate veneration of Ayn Rand, but that doesn't mean I need to sit through a boring course that's exacerbating stress conditions in order to grasp its significance.

Art is subjective. And what you said still makes you a twat.