I loved my college courses (I minored in English). Yes, we read novels and stories, rather than write them, but exposure to all those books can be helpful to someone who wants to be a writer. They can serve as great "how-to" manuals.
I took the general English lit classes and we read some excellent work in those courses. I also took a course in Shakespeare's work and we read many of his plays. And I recall a poetry course in Emily Dickinson and Elizabeth Bishop (I love Bishop's work to this day).
I'm not usually a science fiction fan . . . until a college science fiction course showed me some excellent work out there. Through that course I discovered Vonnegut (got to see him lecture in person once and he has a wonderful, witty personality just like his writing), and Robert Heinlein, Roger Zelazny (sp?) and several others.
I also took a college course in pornography. We read books, short stories, watched films (after taping newspaper to the windows so no one else could see in). I was surprised at the literary quality of some of the works we explored since I had previously thought it was all mostly a bunch of trash. We also took a look at the history of the genre and that was interesting too. Taking that course didn't destroy (or change) my morals either.![]()
I used to teach four-week online courses in flash fiction (and in haibun) and part of the course involved a lot of story analysis and a lot of discussion. We couldn't work in person but we did make it next best thing as much as we could.
I think literature courses of any kind can be beneficial. Through the in-person courses we have the instructors and have other people around for good conversations and discussions on the topic. I think general literature courses could be great as would creative writing courses.
We learn from teachers and from other writers. A little direction is helpful to those who want to go further.
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