How I felt when I went a semester without doing any English courses
What’s the difference between a cat and a comma?
One has claws at the end of its paws and one is a pause at the end of a clause.
"The rather wonderful English word tmesis, which, so far as I know, is the only English word that begins with the letters “tm”. T-M-E-S-I-S; it’s rather wonderful. Which is that … when you cut a word in half by putting another word inside, like saying “abso-blooming-lutely,” or “sen-fucking-sational”."
— (via fuckyeahstephenfry)
(Source: designer-nonsense, via fuckyeahstephenfry)
I NEVER KNEW THIS
I NEVER KNEW THAT WAS WHAT AMERICANS MEANT WHEN THEY SAID “QUITE”
WHY DIDN’T ANYBODY TELL ME
SUDDENLY THAT ONE SONG THAT GOES “HELLO I MISS YOU QUITE TERRIBLY” MAKES LIKE A MILLION TIMES MORE SENSE
are you serious british people
i feel like this means i’ve been overestimating your enthusiasm about things for my entire life
I never knew this. Just so we’re clear, Americans are wrong about this.
(Source: tigerfeel, via eightisalotoflegs)
"The world to me was a secret, which I desired to discover; to her it was a vacancy, which she sought to people with imaginations of her own."
— Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Remember that English essay I was posting about a while ago?
I got an A-, which I am very happy with! Apparently it was “intelligent and scholarly”, and “a pleasure to mark”, which I take as a huge compliment, given the near-encyclopaedic knowledge of the 18th century the tutor has!
Success!
Erin and I were having a discussion about which courses we're doing next semester.
- Me: Well, I'm doing Applied Ethics, I'm really excited!
- English lecturer (who happens to be passing by): You're really excited for the exam, right?
- Me: ...
You know those times when you want to say something in an essay
and it would sound really good and make your argument awesome, except you can’t find any scholarly sources that say it?
That’s what I’m experiencing now.
"When I look out on such a night as this, I feel as if there could be neither wickedness nor sorrow in the world; and there certainly would be less of both if the sublimity of Nature were more attended to, and people were carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene."
— Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
"Nabokov is a brick wall, and you’re a bug. How big of a splat did you make on the wall?"
— My English lecturer. I’m really not sure what the point of that metaphor was. It related somehow to Nabokov’s analysis of Mansfield Park and Nabokov being a super-genius who we will never be like.
"To despise riches, may, indeed, be philosophic, but to dispense them worthily, surely, must be more beneficial to mankind."
— Evelina, Frances Burney
I figured out what annoys me about “Pamela”
I understand that Pamela is meant to be a somewhat flawed character, since she’s only 15 and in a highly stressful situation, and I understand that Stockholm Syndrome is a very real condition. However, the fact remains that the novel was written “in order to cultivate virtue and religion in both the sexes”. This would imply that the behaviour of Pamela (and, to some extent, Mr. B) is to be admired and emulated. Particularly in the case of Mr. B, although he is stated to have reformed, I didn’t find this at all credible. Basically, he strikes me as a colossal dick. In a bad way.
The other thing about Pamela that annoyed me was her almost pious attitude, furthermore, Richardson seemed to be saying that whatever is good in your life is thanks to the goodness of God, but anything that’s going badly is your own damn fault.
![fyeahenglishmajorarmadillo:
[Picture: Background — a six piece pie style colour split, alternating black and grey. Foreground — a picture of an armadillo. Top text: “Friend tries to annoy you by intentionally spelling incorrectly” Bottom text: “It works”]
Submitted by: sirshameem.tumblr.com](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2s116iIy91qhe5udo1_400.jpg)
[Picture: Background — a six piece pie style colour split, alternating black and grey. Foreground — a picture of an armadillo. Top text: “Friend tries to annoy you by intentionally spelling incorrectly” Bottom text: “It works”]
Submitted by: sirshameem.tumblr.com
