Apparently, English Literature is lucrative too.

Well, this is weird. My professor -- the one I've been working for as a research assistant -- just offered me a salary and a chance to do 'library visits' (ie. go on research trips to places like California and the British library) if I decide to take a Master's in English at Queen's.

Basically, she won a grant from the Canadian government which gives her a salary for hiring a student for three years (most likely, three students for one year each). She said she'd "hire me in a second" if I was interested, and that Master's students generally don't have as much money as PhD students with their own funding.

The catch? I'd have to actually be interested in restoration/eighteenth century literature. Certainly, the eighteenth century is the period of some fun things -- like that "motley history of bastardy and fornication" Tom Jones, bawdy poetry written by the Earl of Rochester, and the hilarious Mrs. Malaprop in the play The Rivals. But it also contains the only novel I've read so far that I actually, seriously loathe. Pamela. (shudder) And it's also a very very pompous period -- rife with highbrow satire and lots of in-jokes and authors who seemed incapable of writing a normal-sized sentance. And I like a little fluff in among my pompousness now and then.

The practical, worried-about-money, part of me is screaming that what I'd be getting here is financial security, is an assured life for another year, is a real shot at getting a leg up in the academic world (most Master's students, my professor tells me, don't get to do 'library visits'. Nor, I'm assuming, do they usually get SHRC grant money).

But the part of me that wants to be happy still can't see any future in the eighteenth century. Problem is, I don't have an alternative period of English literature that I like better. I can't say "Sorry, but I'm a romanticist," or "Sorry, but I'm really fascinated by modernism." I just like it all. So I'm back at the place where I kind of want to do a Master's in English, but not because I want to become a professional academic. Can't I just be an amateur?

As usual, just writing all this down has made me sort things out in my head. I won't say I'm going to turn my professor's very kind offer down right away, but I'm fairly sure I will eventually. This blog really has been helpful to me -- it allows me to get my own thoughts straight, as well as seperate (or perhaps integrate) the practical thoughts with the impractical, the desires with the needs, and the silly with the serious.

Even if I don't take her offer and plunge myself into the labyrinthine world of eighteenth century literature, I'm glad my professor offered me the ... what is it? A job? A scholarship? I don't know. Anyways, I'm glad she offered it to me, if for no other reason than to realize that I might just be a desired candidate in post-graduate programs.