Thanks, man. I’d read his previous article “So You Want to Go to Grad School” but hadn’t seen this newer one. I love his list of scenarios where going to grad school in the humanities might be reasonable:

“You are independently wealthy, and you have no need to earn a living for yourself or provide for anyone else.

You come from that small class of well-connected people in academe who will be able to find a place for you somewhere.

You can rely on a partner to provide all of the income and benefits needed by your household.

You are earning a credential for a position that you already hold — such as a high-school teacher — and your employer is paying for it.”

Congratulations, Master! Nice post. The Department Neck crack made me chortle, which woke up the cat long enough to stretch himself and tuck his head back into the cradle of his belly fur. Lazy, uneducated, unemployed and yet unconcerned and unscorned.

Although the pony tail might fit, the mantle of slovenly, impoverished, demoralized intellectual poseur probably won’t hang too tightly around the neck of those seeking mastery of anything that the Necks deem a Science. The life choice of graduate education is more troublesome for those who seek to parlay their love of literature, or history, or bad coffee and day-old pita, into a lifetime in Academe: the Humanist. The pseudonymous pessimist Thomas H. Benton sums up the misery in Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don’t Go.