Most, not all, of the major meta writers were/are frustrated English Lit majors or professors. Or so I discovered. A few classicists. A couple were philosophy majors or professors. There was one economist/mathematician - TCH, who is also writing a lot about British politics and economics on his LJ. And a Buddhist monk, who was sort of interesting. Ran across a few geneticists - who looked at everything almost a wee bit too literally, and a social Darwinist who pissed everyone off. A lot of lawyers, like myself.
I never had much to do with ATPOBTVS, partly because I was always a season behind and partly because I hated the formating of the board. It is one of my regrets though because the standard of meta there was so high.
I have met a lot of scientists and mathematicians in fandom, covering just about every speciality. I am aware that there are an awful lot of English Lit graduates out there - I probably knew half a dozen librarians in my peek fandom days. Never knowingly met a lawyer before. I am the only blue-collar manual worker that I know of, but there may be many others out there keeping a low profile as to what they do.
My degree is in Geography and I didn't study any English lit ever, not even an O Level, so my meta and fiction were entirely self-taught and so probably have quirks accordingly. But fandom provides an excellent amateur training in every aspect of fiction so it was a good learning environment. I even learnt to punctuate (I didn't know I couldn't until a beta reader broke it to me that my punctuation was dreadful).
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
Re: Writing
Date: 2017-06-14 11:19 am (UTC)I never had much to do with ATPOBTVS, partly because I was always a season behind and partly because I hated the formating of the board. It is one of my regrets though because the standard of meta there was so high.
I have met a lot of scientists and mathematicians in fandom, covering just about every speciality. I am aware that there are an awful lot of English Lit graduates out there - I probably knew half a dozen librarians in my peek fandom days. Never knowingly met a lawyer before. I am the only blue-collar manual worker that I know of, but there may be many others out there keeping a low profile as to what they do.
My degree is in Geography and I didn't study any English lit ever, not even an O Level, so my meta and fiction were entirely self-taught and so probably have quirks accordingly. But fandom provides an excellent amateur training in every aspect of fiction so it was a good learning environment. I even learnt to punctuate (I didn't know I couldn't until a beta reader broke it to me that my punctuation was dreadful).