Monday, April 02, 2012

Bachelors in Freaking Viking Studies

Cripes.

You know fellas, you guys in the UK can also order my book in that it seems the Brits are about as hell-bent on majoring in worthless subjects as are Americans.

Any British or European readers out there that can recommend a newspaper or a radio show to send a copy to across the Atlantic?

14 comments:

heresolong said...

At least your major in JA studies gives you the opportunity to meet and/or commence a relationship with said subject.

What on earth are you going to do with Vikings? a)there aren't any left and 2) if there were they'd be more likely to kill you and loot your stuff than offer you a horn of mead and their daughters.

Joan of Argghh! said...

But. . . but. . .Vikings!

We should counter that with Pirate studies.

Rowan said...

http://www.esquire.com/features/young-people-in-the-recession-0412

Good article for the Capt.

Note: It's on 3 separate pages.

Baron Metzengerstein said...

I would think Viking studies would be a specialized area of pirate studies, if we're being really technical.

Then again, it seems out of sync to have a studies class about something historical, cool, etc...

Ryan Fuller said...

Viking Studies may not land you a job, or even make you a "well-rounded person" (whatever that's supposed to mean), but dammit Captain, it's awesome.

As far as worthless degrees go, Viking Studies is infinitely cooler than the vast majority of alternatives.

I approve of 'Joan of Argghh' suggesting Pirate studies. :)

Just1X said...

The Daily Mail - UK.

They're a bunch of twunts, but they might decide that your book allows them to unleash a diatribe du jour.

Education (reform of A levels - gateway to a degree course) is in the news today. A levels being too easy, easy retakes of small modules shortly after being taught them (then forgettable), dropping standards for reasons I gave some posts back.

Anonymous said...

Newspapers in the UK that would actually give your book a read, let alone a positive review? Ha!

Seriously, the media's even more socialist oriented over here than most people realise -- the only thing the British Media is good at is dressing things up so they don't seem as crazed/left wing/biased.

Anonymous said...

Cappy, my entire 20's was a long course in Viking Studies. Corruption of women, pillage, excessive use of strong drink, long trips, boating and fishing with my friends, and further corruption of maidens.

With a minor in fine art appreciation.

Jonathan said...

Looking at the course website this is no more useless than any other humanities degrees. The modules form a coherent combination of English literature, linguistics, and medieval history.

Any degree course that requires you to learn Old English is intellectually rigorous enough not to be mocked. It is harder than Ancient Greek.

Of course, even a good humanities degree gets you a job that won't pay off a student loan. This didn't matter when home-student tuition was only £9,000 for a BA.

Hot Sam said...

No, Vikings are cool. Romans are cool. Spartans are cool. Pirates are cool. They were history makers, and studying History is useful. Those warriors made technology. They had commerce.

Studying the African diaspora is uncool. It's not "history": it's Victimology 101. It's SOLE PURPOSES are to arouse anger, hatred, and a sense of entitlement.

Anonymous said...

You should try the conservative UK papers.

Daily Mail
The Telegraph
The Times

They don't seem to have talk radio the way we do. I'm

Sigivald said...

What Jonathan said.

It looks like it's a medieval lit and history degree, with specialization.

Yeah, it's not Career Training, but it's not like it's Ethnic Grievance Studies, either.

Sounds like it's reasonably rigorous liberal arts study, which is a refreshing change.

Anonymous said...

That's not so bad I have a friend with a bachelors in " Genocide studies" , that's right " Genocide"

Pirran said...

Glad you asked this question.

Of the MSM publications, The Telegraph and Spectator are easily the best. Inevitably, even within The Telegraph, there are part to follow and parts to ignore. James Delingpole and Christopher Booker are particularly sound, but Janet Daley is always a good read. Toby Young (now at The Sun on Sunday) has his own blog (No Sacred Cows).

Otherwise, the best writing is in the Brit Libertarian blogosphere. The main ones being EUReferendum, Old Holborn and Anna Raccoon. Guido Fawkes is variable and a bit Westminster obsessed (essentially a Brit beltway blog) but can be very good. Biased BBC is always good for the sheer horror of the Peoples Republic of Beeb.

All of the above have decent hit rates, some of them (Dellers comes to mind), very large.


http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/jamesdelingpole/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/janetdaley/

http://eureferendum.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.annaraccoon.com/

http://bastardoldholborn.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.nosacredcows.co.uk/

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/smartphonecolumnists/article4153909.ece

http://www.biased-bbc.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.spectator.co.uk/spectator/