What work does a final year English student have to do over the Christmas holidays? Enough to require Rocky montage levels of efficiency, that’s for sure. I’ve achieved such a speed several times this semester and it ain’t pretty, much like the great man himself.
First deadline is the Special Subject essay, 5000 words, on the 14th of January. My essay is about Max Nordau’s delightful rant Degeneration, specifically his concept that the smart people in the 1890s felt that it was the ”Dusk of the Nations’ and that everything around him sucked. Incidentally, everything around him included Ibsen, Wilde, Wagner… I relate this cheery theory to H. G. Wells, and the poetry of Lionel Johnson, and Ernest Dowson.
Second deadline is the dissertation, also 5000 words, on the 16th of of January. Richard’s advice is not to wait until you’ve handed in the Special Subject essay two days before to start. ‘You’ meaning ‘me’, in this case — stupid English language. The subject of my dissertation is the Devil, and I’ve now read enough about Satan, the Antichrist, Beelzebub, Lucifer, Belial, Ragamoffyn (my personal favourite), Gobelyn, &c. to fill up those 5000 words with reasonable efficiency.
The final target that can’t be missed is the Romantics and Victorians exam. That’ll take some studying. It’s on the 22nd, so there is a week after the dissertation deadline but, again, trying to cover almost a hundred years of literature in a week is rather risky gambit.
In other news: it’s Christmas! A.k.a. the holiday season, the season of greetings, the festive season, &c., and so I wish you all the best in however you spend it. My only suggestion is that you dedicate slightly less time to the Devil than I plan to be doing — I comment which I don’t get to make often. Happy holidays!
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