NYU – Major & Minor Requirements

This is just a reference guide for myself really 🙂

CAS Morse Academic Plan – Core Classes
[X] Writing The Essay Fall 2009
[X] Conversations of the West Fall 2009
[X] World Cultures Spring 2010
[ ] Foreign Language (Up to the Intermediate II level)

[X] Spanish 2 Fall 2009
[X] Spanish 3 Spring 2010
[ ] Spanish 4 Projected Fall 2010

[X] Course in the social sciences English major overrides

[X] Course in the arts (Expressive Culture) English major overrides
[ ] Quantitative Reasoning

[ ] Quantitative Methods in Political Science (V53.0800)

Major – English (10 courses/40 credits)
[X] Literary Interpretation (V41.0200) Spring 2010
[ ] British Literature I (V41.0210) Projected Fall 2010
[ ] British Literature II (V41.0220)
[ ] American Literature I (V41.0230) Projected Fall 2010
[ ] Theory of Drama (V41.0130)
[ ] Arthurian Legends ((V41.0717)
[ ] Senior Seminar – Dramatic Literature (V41.0971)
[ ] Dante & His World (V41.0143)
[ ] The Theory of the Avant-Garde, East and West (V41.0730)
[ ] Introduction to Old English Language and Literature (V41.0315)

Minor – Creative Writing (4 courses/16 credits)
[X] Creative Writing: Introduction to Fiction and Poetry (V39.0815) Spring 2010
[ ] Writers in Paris: Fiction or Poetry (V39.9818) (8 credit intensive)
[ ] Advanced Fiction Workshop (V39.0820)

Minor – Politics (5 courses/20 credits)
[ ] Quantitative Methods in Political Science (V53.0800)
[ ] Power and Politics in America (V53.0300)
[ ] Business and American Foreign Policy (V53.0736) pre-req: V53.0300
[ ] Political Parties (V53.0340) pre-req: V53.0300
[ ] The Politics of Administrative Law (V53.0354) Projected Fall 2010

On that note, I absolutely HATE my CAS advisor. Not only does she not know shit, but the (absolutely useless) seminar she encouraged that I take last semester, though it boosted by GPA, made no dent in my required courses. She knew I had enough AP credits to cover my electives, and should only be taking classes toward my major/minors, but instead of telling me to take another course in political science my first semester, she told me to take that seminar. And then this semester, I could have taken British Literature or American Literature (I) conjointly with my Literary Interpretation class, an option she didn’t even tell me. Further, she told me (essentially) that I would do bad if I took both literary interpretation and creative writing in the same semester. Instead, the classes are so different (and don’t have as heavy a workload as she implied), and I’m slated for A’s in both (hopefully)

So basically, NYU advisors suck, just know your own shit tyvm. Now I’m going to cram and finish all of those classes by spring 2012. Just you guys wait and watch.

But thanks to idiot counselors who don’t know what it means to be helpful to freshmen, I’ll graduate with 132 credits instead of the 128 needed. One extra class, all for naught.

Hmmph. I’d do a better job as advisor than half of their current staff.

Guaranteed.

Trust me, I know my shit.

The Red Wheelbarrow – Imitation + Reflection

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

That above me, that right there…that’s a masterpiece guys. I swear, it is. Don’t ask me why, just take my word for it.
Actually, I know why it’s a masterpiece, but that doesn’t mean that I agree with the embellished logic. Not one little teensy weensy bit of it.

I’ve been told that my task for creative writing (the assignment’s due tomorrow, 8AM) is to imitate this style. 

I will imitate it, but I will not be happy.

within us lie
broken

pieces of sad
memories

tempered with old
age

blotted out by
time

Generally speaking, I’m not quite this cynical or sardonic when it comes to poetry. However, the minimalist style really infuriates me, simply because its interpretations are so vague and expansive that one can never be sure how grounded they are. In fact, most aren’t grounded at all. If I were to, for example, exalt my poem and claim it was written by a famous poet two hundred years ago, they would come up with all kinds of wacky explanations tapping into its ingenuity. But actually, I would not have been thinking of any of those silly interpretations when I wrote it. So if nobody can righteously interpret a poem, why make it minimalist? Does that not just leave more room for error? More room to take the work and thoughts and mind of another and claim to know it as well as you know your own? Poetry can be beautiful, but I would much rather prefer reading and appreciating another’s creativity, rather than trying to impress upon others my apparent knowledge of the creator’s mind. I would much rather read a poem with more words to it…sixteen words cannot, to me, achieve a level of profundity. Especially not the idyllic comments that Wikipedia had in relation to this poem. The Red Wheelbarrow does not, to me, “[transform] the wheelbarrow into an object of aesthetic contemplation.” It is well written, it flows, and it makes us think. And that’s all.