Studying analysis, I stumbled upon two branches which I loved: functional analysis and special functions. I began to study q-series and a bit of elliptic functions. However, soon after I talked to some professors, they were very vocal and discouraging. (I study in a university were the main interest in the analysis department is C*-algebras. )
Should I follow their advice and study more modern analysis? Can I research in special functions or is it too hard? Is Watson's coauthored text a good place to continue my study?
Thank you in advance for any advice or suggestion.