What to do...

Pierre and I working hard (read: hardly working) in class

For the Fall semester, I have 2 choices of courses.  

• Door #1 is Survey in French Literature
  
• Door #2 is Stylistics.  
  

So, most people would advise me to take the lesser of two evils.  The degree of evil depends on the person.  I'd much prefer Stylistics but I really should take a Lit course to get it over with.  You're probably wondering what stylistics is.  Well, its the study of language elements usage in different contexts.  Say what?  Allow me to illustrate.  The writing style we use for newspapers is different than that found in short stories.  A newspaper starts with a lead that gives a brief of the story up front.  A short story, on the other hand, will reveal details slowly and in due time.  A newspaper article uses straight forward words to present the information clearly and efficiently.  A short story tends to contain more descriptive and flowery language that will lead a reader to various conclusions.  A newspaper is pointed and forthright whereas a short story is vague.  Stylistics is the study of nuances and methods to language madness in varying genres of writing.  Neat, huh?

The reason I'm hesitant to take French Lit is because I studied a lot of it in undergrad and found its not my forte.  I took theatre of the absurd, existentialism, fiction and general lit.  That's enough to make anyone head to the hills!  I was not admitted into any of the ph.d programs because I was lacking French Lit on the graduate level.  There we have it...the bête noire of my academic path.  What do I do?