5.11.11

Sometimes I wonder (and so do other people I'm sure) why anyone would become an English major. And sometimes it's nice to be reminded. During our last day of class yesterday, my professor read us this quote from Ian McEwan's essay, "Only Love and Then Oblivion":

"Imagining what it is like to be someone else is at the core of humanity. It is the essence of compassion and it is the beginning of morality."

McEwan calls crimes against humanity "failures of the imagination". He argues that if perpetrators could understand the souls of their victims, or at least try to imagine them, acts of cruelty toward other humans could be eliminated.

In class we talked about the role of literature in imagination, and the ability it lends to understand other people. This gives me hope that there IS a tangible reason to read books and write about them...that it's somehow wrapped up in social justice and empathy for others and relationships. This kind of study seems to get to the basics of almost everything I want to learn more about.

But then I also remember that I don't have a single final this semester (and farrr too many papers). And suddenly I begin to wonder about my choice of major all over again...ahaha.