ENGL 450 Daily Themes is Amazing and a Course Worth Taking
Reflections on the first lecture of what might be Yale's best English course
I’ve only just started taking ENGL 450 Daily Themes, but I already think that it might be the best course I’ve ever taken at Yale.
Professor Ehrgood is absolutely fantastic. His insights are piercing, salient, and unforgettable. And I already know that I will be keeping some of his lessons with me for the rest of my life. Some of the best topics we covered:
- You should write for the ear rather than the eye
- Head, Heart by Lydia Davis is beautiful, perhaps one of the best poems I’ve ever heard
- When writing, have something to say
- The case for “essay”
Of course, I’m being highly speculative right now, and there’s a good chance that the workload might be really hard, or it’s just really challenging to stay on top of all these daily writings. But I think that it’ll be okay. A lot of the times, You can figure out a lot from a course just from the first lecture. And I think that this is one of the few lecture courses that are worth taking (see Never attend a lecture course unless it’s for your major).